MusicDish Industry e-Journal

MusicDish Industry e-Journal

Find Out About: Artistopia™
'The Ultimate Artist Development Resource'

By: Anne Freeman, The Aspiring Songwriter® (Editor-in-Chief)
2005-05-15



Artistopia™ -The Ultimate Artist Development Resource, is an online, comprehensive artist development service that focuses creating a place on the Internet where music artists, musicians, songwriters, and industry professionals can develop and do business. Artistopia™ features tools for music marketing, productivity, community development, and advanced technology to support artists’ sites on Artistopia™ and the many services it offers its members and end users. Artistopia™ also offers several levels of membership services to suit the budgets and career needs of all of its members.

A comprehensive list of Artistopia™ services includes:

· Music Marketing Tools: Comprehensive artist bio profiles; unlimited song / track uploads; event, gig, and performance listings; industry experience listings; formal education / training listings; web links for additional references; press releases publication; photo albums and slide shows; member message boards; and profile search engine inclusion.

· Artist Productivity Tools: Press kit builder with professional layouts; submit press kits to anyone via email; receive and approve press kit requests; build and manage newsletters; online development tutorials and lessons; email alerts on messages received; maintain a fan base with fan list manager; unlimited classified ad postings; business relationship manager; and extensive directory of online resources.

· Community Development: Dedicated member support staff; maximum privacy protection; receive internal and external messages; discussion boards and forum threads; events and gigs calendar; real-time and all-time song charts; and industry news and press release service.

· Advanced Technology: Content and feature rich website; eye pleasing and user-friendly interface; architecture lends feature scalability; optimum backbone for surf speed; multiple servers for processing horsepower; daily backups and failover redundancy; and technology built by renown experts.

In the following MusicDish e-interview with Artistopia™ Marketing Director Donna Liguria, we discuss why Artistopia™ was created, the philosophy behind Artistopia™, advice to indie artists, information about some new services that are in the pipeline for Artistopia™ members, and a free indie artist offer!

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Donna, who founded Artistopia™, when and why?

Donna Liguria Artistopia™ was ultimately founded by iCubator Labs (ICL), its parent company. In 2003, Yaser Chanaa, our CEO, came up with the concept and vision for Artistopia™ to scale ICL in a direction/market he felt strongly about. The credit in building, marketing, and fostering Artistopia™, however, belongs to everyone from the management team to the front line staff. We are all music lovers here, and Yaser himself was an indie at one point early in his career.

Yaser’s vision for Artistopia™ is to provide the indie community with a comprehensive site that offers every tool the indie or unsigned artist needs to excel in their careers. We found that each indie portal specialized in one tool or another, so the thought was why not combine them all under one umbrella and provide indie artists a web site where they can build a permanent base, for life.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Tell us a little bit about the Artistopia™ staff.

Donna Liguria Well, to better answer the question, I need to tell you a little secret of ours. We are technically savvy and rely tremendously on our technology for automating many aspects of our business process whereas many of our friends and competitors have to hire to make do. With that thought in mind, we are an extremely lean organization that houses experts in each of the needed business fields.

To start, we have Yaser Chanaa, who is in charge of the overall direction of the company, technology architecture and infrastructure, artist development process, and overall marketing strategy. We have Donna Liguria (me!), who is the online marketing director ultimately responsible for our online reputation, traffic throughput, advertising, and cross-promotional strategies.

Then we have Ismael Halidou, who is our business development director in charge of unearthing business opportunities, establishing partnership channels, and making pitches to large-scale industry players that will help Artistopia™ achieve its corporate mission.

Last and definitely not least, Dina Kennedy is our finance and operations director. Dina is the one with that keeps us legal, on time, productive, and doing business with a conscious. We have a few other folks that fill in as needed; however, this is the team in a nutshell.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] I saw artist pages for both independent and professional artists on the site. What criteria are used to determine an artist’s category and why are both included?

Donna Liguria The bottom line is that Artistopia™ is first and foremost an indie community and will always remain so. Ninety percent of our technology and marketing thrust is geared toward indie artists. Through our marketing efforts, indies eventually end up on Artistopia™ and start off with the free plan. This way they get an insight on all the comprehensive tools available to them. Should they decide to upgrade and expand their access to more powerful artist management and productivity tools, they may do so by signing up for the Professional Indie Plan. Otherwise, the free plan is enough for members to integrate themselves into the community and become a productive member.

As for the pro artists’ area, we felt this would give indies more insight on what it takes to be a professional artist. We have an automated mechanism for entering them into the pro artists’ area, and the majority of the pro artists we foster are ones we want indies to take notice of. Eventually, when indies hit the big time and decide they don’t need us, we will roll them over to the pro section. The other strategy for having pro artists on Artistopia™ is, of course, to help us generate funds. Through our partnership with Amazon, we are able to extend discounted album sales to music lovers across the world, and to our members as well.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Briefly describe the services that Artistopia™ provides its membership.

Donna Liguria One of our main goals is to build the ultimate artist development resource. You can’t do that by giving artists a few tools and pointing them into a direction without any goals to aim for. Artistopia™ provides its artist members with all the necessary tools essential to their career development. Examples of such tools include the basic profile bio with a mission statement, music discography (MP3 uploads and album sales through Amazon.com), event/performance listings, experience and award listings, education/training listings, classified ad postings, community wide rankings, chart inclusion, and private member message boards.

Extended tools include press releases, external site references, customizable press kit builder/submitter, fan list manager, contact relationship manager, newsletter editor, online artist development lessons (through partnership with Berklee College of Music), inbox central, privacy protection, bullet-proof spam audits, …and I’m running out of breath here. Again, we are a technology powerhouse and have the capabilities to deliver state-of-the-art solutions on an ad-hoc basis.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] What promotional activities does Artistopia™ provide to its members, if any?

Donna Liguria To start, Artistopia™ is search engine optimized so that all profiles (in time) will appear in at the top of search engine results for relevant keywords such as the artist’s name. As Artistopia™ grows its community, more and more indies will be heard and exposed by the highly targeted traffic that visit Artistopia™. The bottom line is that we have the framework for indies to excel in their careers; however, the work does have to come from them.

Our ranking system places hard working member artists in high profile areas of the site, and they know this. We get many artists that join and expect us to immediately place them on charts and register downloads by the millions. They quickly find that Artistopia™ is not the place to be because we aren’t built for the faint of heart, nor is it designed to push ego buttons. We are in the business of real-life artist development on the web, not payola.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] How do your services differ from other similar service providers?

Donna Liguria:

· First: We are by far and large technically superior to any and all of our competitors, and are ready to take the Pepsi challenge against them any day.

· Second: We push our artists through the well-designed and thought-out artist development process. Our ranking technology is not based on “god knows who” reviews like our competitors. Instead, the ranking technology analyzes the members’ credentials based on the length of their careers, and gives special weight and consideration to certain aspects of their respective talents.

· Third: Our support is almost real-time. Members find themselves getting the help they need immediately, provided they submit their request within business hours (8 a.m. – 8 p.m. EST).

· Fourth: We aren’t looking for today’s dollar; we are in it for the fame of revolutionizing the music industry as a whole. We are privately held and cash flow positive, meaning we have no institutional pressures and are focused on honing the online artist development process. For the most part, everyone else does MP3 hosting only. The bottom line is our members feel like they are truly a part of Artistopia™.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] What are the most common questions that you get from artists using your services?

Donna Liguria Because we use “pros” terminology like “Music Discography,” the most common question is how and where do I go to upload my music. It usually comes from beginner indies who aren’t used to industry terms and verbiage. Another popular question is how does the ranking technology work. We have an informative page that explains all that needs to be explained for members to know what has to be done. Other than that, ranking is a well-kept secret of ours.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] What particular service on Artistopia™ do artists find the most useful/helpful?

Donna Liguria The fact that Artistopia™ is a one-stop shop with an affordable lifetime membership. They get all the tools they need, and never have to leave and re-establish themselves or start over elsewhere.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Who are your typical Artistopia™ end users, and what are the trends you are seeing in end users?

Donna Liguria Well, we get music fans, artists, musicians, songwriters, professionals, and businesses from all walks of the music industry. The current trend we are seeing is that indie artists are in dire need of a trusted home that won’t shut down tomorrow. We have seen many indie portals disappear overnight without notice, only to affect indie artists’ trust for using the Internet as a viable mean to be heard and discovered. That will not happen at Artistopia™, and that is a guarantee.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] What do you see are the greatest barriers to independent artists’ careers, and how does Artistopia™ help overcome those barriers?

Donna Liguria The biggest barriers indies face are their understanding of the music industry and what it takes to make it in an industry filled with much heartache. Many still believe in sending demos into outer space only to never be heard. Since our mission is to build an artist development resource, a large part of our effort and process is educating members on the harsh realities, and encouraging them to plow ahead with a certain strategy in mind. By the third or fourth month of their membership, the ones that stick around are the ones you know are serious and dedicated.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Would you give us an example of an Artistopia™ success story?

Donna Liguria Well, we would love to, but in our promise for privacy protection, we won’t name names. Occasionally we get requests to expire accounts because members have been signed to a label. We feel it is a self-indulging practice for us to boast which members became alumni; however, the wishes of our fearless CEO is not to hail it for business development reasons, but to see it as something for us to expect over and over again. Other success stories include opening up members’ eyes into the harsh realities of this business. We get many, many thank yous for giving them the home and education they need to excel. It is very gratifying for us to see our members absorb the knowledge because then we know we are doing our jobs.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] What trends are you seeing regarding the artists who are using Artistopia™ services?

Donna Liguria Reality quickly sets in and you see them want to go and push that extra 100 miles. They quickly notice the competition and step up their game. It’s like a moving walkway. Some jump on and fall flat on their butts and say this isn’t for them. Some jump on, fall, get up and say to themselves, “Ok, I think I got it.” Some jump on, wobble a bit and rebound. And some jump on and go as if it’s another day in their lives. We are always watching the ones that stick around because deep inside we know finding your niche and competing on Artistopia™ is no walk in the park. Let me take a moment and plug our tenacious and relentless members: CHEERS Y’ALL!

[The Aspiring Songwriter] What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the independent music community today?

Donna Liguria Knowledge and trust. No one is willing to give up the knowledge first hand and trust just has to be earned. In essence, what came first, the chicken or the egg? This ultimately impedes their drive and is quite distracting in deciphering what is knowledge and who means well. Yes, we can get into the indie record labels challenging the big 5 or 6 or whatever, and how the industry is so fudged up. To us, that is a cop out.

Any good and mature artist can get signed provided they play the game right. I mean think about it, Tupac started as a roadie for Digital Underground. He rose to become not only one of the best rappers in the history of music, but also became a pillar in music all together. Learn the game, play it with your head, get in, gain popularity, THEN and I mean THEN you can call the shots. Until then, listen to what the pros are telling you. Consume the knowledge and think strategically. Do business with your head and play music with your heart.

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Any advice for artists?

Donna Liguria Please note the above statement. And check out Artistopia™ …

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Does Artistopia™ have anything new coming down the pike?

Donna Liguria We have many modules in the works, if not wait-listed. One piece we are working feverishly on is an interactive indie webcast that displays member profiles as their music plays. Some other examples include a hybrid online chat with a music trivia game, e-cards, and possibly enabling artists to host their own webcasts. Those are some ideas with some prototypes in the works, but shhhhh … we don’t want our competitors to know, right!

[The Aspiring Songwriter] Thank you, Donna, for talking to MusicDish about Artistopia™.

Donna Liguria I thank you for the opportunity to share Artistopia™ with your readers, and we welcome all indies out in cyberspace to visit us and take up on our free offer !

Visit Artistopia™ - The Ultimate Artist Development Resource, at www.artistopia.com

Sales And Marketing Trends In The Music Industry

Sales And Marketing Trends In The Music Industry

The Decline Of Record Sales Revenues

by Katherina Sutter,

MusicDish Network Sponsor

Why talk about the music industry's options dealing with new technologies? Since the music industry has gone through major changes in the recent years, it is important to know, which of their strategies have proved successful and which have not. In these years of major changes, the sales revenues of record companies have rapidly and steadily declined. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the worldwide record sales revenues were US $10 Billion less in 2003 than 8 years earlier. In the USA the record revenues have declined more than 10% since 2000.

The reasons for the decline in record sales revenues are disputed. Some studies conducted by record industry associations conclude that the increased distribution of unauthorized music copies is the main reason for the recent decline of the sales revenues of authorized music copies (IFPI c).

Oberholzer and Strumpf contradict the above mentioned thesis in their study on the effects of file sharing. They state that the sharing of music files via the internet (which produces a major part of the unauthorized copies (IFPI d) has no influence upon record sales revenues (Oberholzer; Strumpf).

The fight against unauthorized music copies

One of the strategies of the record companies to counter the decline of revenues was to fight unauthorized music copies. In this study, the actions taken against unauthorized music copying as well as their outcome during the years 2000-2004 are described.

Legislation: The legal warrant for the battle against unauthorized music copies in the USA has been defined in the ³Digital Millennium Copyright Act² (DMCA). It forbids the cracking of copyright protection devices for example (The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy). The DMCA is also the basis for lawsuits of the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) against users that offer unauthorized copies through a file sharing system and for damage claims. Thus a legal basis for the fight of unauthorized copying in the USA has been established.

Yet, there is a grey zone about what is allowed and what is not, since laws can be expected to change rather quickly in the area of new technologies. In addition the DMCA has acquired a lot of counter activities. For example there has emerged an organization that wants to reestablish complete rights to make private copies of audio software (Röttgers; Krempl). The attempts to overthrow the new copyright law and reestablish the former rules have created insecurity among consumers about future laws and their enforcement. Lobbying to support the DMCA and similar legislation imposes costs on the recording industry.

Lawsuits: According to the current laws, record companies can sue copyright violators and software producers that support copyright infringement. In reality, record companies are not always successful suing software companies and not very effective stemming the tide of copyright violators. For example, lawsuits against the company that holds the rights of and markets the file sharing software Kazaa have not been successful; Kazaa was declared legal by the Dutch Supreme Court (Michaelson; Bernhard). Only a very small percentage of the total number of copyright violators can be sued, because there are simply too many and the process too costly. In 2003, there were up to 60 Million file sharers using the Kazaa network. The small probability of being sued inhibits the effectiveness of lawsuits against file sharers. There are various file sharing systems increasingly used for illegal purposes with a growing number of users, e.g. Bit Torrent for videos.

Copyright protection devices: Copyright protection devices integrated into CDs and music files could be an effective protection against copyright infringement, but this is offset by the constant developments of cracking devices sold by IT companies (np/mh; Bundesverband fuer phonographische Wirtschaft e.V.). Thus an expensive condition for the success of copyright protection devices is their constant enhancement concurrent with the enhancement of cracking devices.

Moral appeals: Moral appeals seek to keep people from making unauthorized copies by changing their attitude towards unauthorized copying. Record Industry organizations try to provoke a bad conscience (Hainmüller), citing popular stars saying that illegal copying is a bad thing. ³t.A.t.U² was cited saying ³Please don't steal our music, if you're really smart guys² (promusic.org). These and similar statements of pop stars hardly cause pity or a bad conscience, since the relatively high income of pop stars is well known to their audience. The pop stars also contradict each other on this issue. Robby Williams for example, in fact, encouraged his fans in a public speech to infringe his copyright (Schieb).

Legal supply of downloadable music: The recording and IT industry have developed their own online sources of music files in the recent years. The licensed supply should permit these industries to profit from the growth of the music market. It also should suppress unauthorized file sharing. However, the persistence of file sharing software shows that the latter goal has not been reached.

All in all, a complete protection of the property rights of music is only possible at prohibitive costs. Hence, it is unlikely, that the worldwide record sales volumes of 1995 and 1996 can be fully recovered just by the above mentioned legal efforts, technological copy protection, moral appeals and licit supply of downloadable music. The development of different strategies appears warranted.

Diversification as a strategy to overcome losses due to shrinking record sales revenues: An alternate strategy, which in the past few years has been pursued by companies in the entertainment sector, is diversification. Record companies have been in the publishing market for quite a while (Gould). More recently many of them added the merchandise and concert business to the scope of their activities (Kurp). By moving in these industries, record companies have turned into music marketing companies. Media corporations in turn acquired such music marketing companies or their divisions (Bertelsmann AG, a) and pop musicians have set up their own diversified music marketing companies.

A model of the music market: Record companies traditionally could be categorized as the interface between the musician on one side, and media companies and record distributors or retailers on the other side. Lately, many have added merchandise production, concert promotion and artist management to their business, i.e. their buyers' scope has expanded and includes among others merchandise retailers or distributors and concert locations in addition to record stores/distributors and media companies.

Record companies have turned into music marketing companies, entering the merchandise and concert market and the artist management business. Gold: First stage of production. Blue: Second stage of production. Pink: Distribution. Arrow: Targets of diversification.

Essentially, all different ways of offering the artist's content, from records to TV and radio shows, can be seen as different products of the same trademark. Records are only one of many ways of offering essentially the same content.

The recent development of music market segments: Why diversify? The recording segment of the music market has become much more competitive and unattractive due to the shrinking of the recorded music market. At the same time the merchandise and the concert segments have grown. The growth of sales revenues of the merchandise market and the concert market clearly serves as an indicator of the attractiveness of these markets.

There are few publicly accessible sources for sales revenues of music merchandise and concerts, and those that exist neither contain specific amounts for worldwide music merchandize sales nor the worldwide concert revenues. What is published are two years of general worldwide merchandise sales revenues, a forecast of their development, three years of worldwide concert revenues of US artists, and a forecast of their development.

The International Licensing Industry and Merchandisers Association (LIMA), the Yale School of Management and the Harvard Business School have published the data on licensing revenues, used in this study. The data was generated in a survey on licensors and licensing agencies (LIMA a). The US magazine ³Billboard² has provided data on the worldwide concert revenues of US rock and pop artists. This data has been collected from concert promoters. The reporting of the concert promoters was voluntary, so the numbers were not complete and not comparable over time (Allen a).

In 2003, the president of LIMA forecasted growth of the international market for licenses (LIMA a). The total licensing revenues in the US have grown 4% between 2001 and 2002 (LIMA b). Also the licensing revenues on the music market have grown 1.7% in that time span (LIMA a; Gottlieb). The worldwide concert audience of US artists has grown US$ 32 Million to US$ 39 Million between the years 2001 and 2003 in spite of rising ticket prices. The growth was especially high in 2003 with rounded 6.91 Million additional visitors (Allen b). According to industry analysts, this growth is part of a positive trend in the concert industry (Allen a).

With respect to the above mentioned figures, unauthorized copies should not be considered entirely from a negative perspective. First of all, the new ways to acquire music for free, by file sharing and CD burning, stimulated recorded music consumption. In Germany for example, the total consumption of recorded music grew steadily while the total record sales revenues declined. (Fig. 6). Future growth of the amount of unauthorized copies as well as of total music consumption is probable.

Second the growth of music consumption can have a positive effect upon the revenues of music market segments. Although in Germany, unauthorized copies have risen 25%, licensing revenues did not shrink. They even rose 1%, and future growth is predicted (LIMA a; LIMA b; IFPI d). Unauthorized copies do not seem to be significantly correlated with licensing revenues.

Intuition would suggest that the increased distribution and consumption of recorded music of a specific musician, no matter if authorized or unauthorized, augments the popularity of that specific artist. Increased popularity leads to increased sales of the artist's licensed goods.

This applies to concerts, as well. According to the Billboard's analysis of the concert industry, the concert revenues will grow. Thus, concert revenues do not seem to be negatively, but rather positively correlated to unauthorized copying of recorded music. A positive correlation between the level of concert revenues and the amount of unauthorized copies also makes sense for the following reason: You would rather attend the concert of your favorite artist than of an artist that you do not know at all. In case you developed your preference for the artist by copying their music, you attended their concert as a consequence of unauthorized copying activity. When people as a result of growing music consumption increase the number of musicians they know, this can also have a positive impact on the size of the concert audience.

Summarizing, unauthorized copies neither have negative effects on concert nor on merchandising revenues. Unauthorized copies of merchandise do not appear to cause as big of a problem as unauthorized copies of sound recordings do. Concerts, in turn, can not be copied at all. Consequently, the concert and merchandise industry is not significantly threatened by any kind of unauthorized copies.

The lack of significant unauthorized copying activities and the current and predicted market growth (Sperlich, 33) make the merchandise and concert markets attractive, compared to the record market.

Pro diversification arguments from an organizational perspective: Interdependencies between the marketing activities of record companies, concert promoters and licensing agencies are a reason to organize all of them in the same company. A general rule, pronounced by Picot, Dietl and Frank (Picot, Dietl , Franck, 73ff), is that interdependent processes should be organized in the same organizational unit, since the necessary conveyance of knowledge between them causes transaction costs (Johnson). This general rule is transferable to the conveyance of information between companies.

Usually the artist's manager and publicist, record company, concert promoter, licensing agent and eventually film producers participate in marketing and especially advertising activities for the artist. There are interdependencies between these activities, which make their integration in one company a less costly solution in terms of transaction costs caused by knowledge transfer.

External effects are a similar reason for integration of new functions into a company, i.e. diversification. If the artist's management is employed by the integrated music marketing company, the management can be obligated to preferably use internal record producers, concert promoters and licensing agents. As a consequence the positive external effects of the advertising activities of concert promoters, licensing agents and record companies work within the company.

An example of a successful, diversified entertainment company: An extreme case of diversification in the entertainment business is the integration of a music marketing companies into a media corporation. In the example of the Bertelsmann Group this has proven to be successful: The project of the German Idol Show DSDS, organized exclusively by the Bertelsmann group and there affiliated firms, such as BMG and RTL, has been of benefit for all companies that have participated in the project. All aspects of the production and marketing of performances and products related to the DSDS-pop musicians and their name ( i.e. trade mark) have been organized by the Bertelsmann group. The transmitting TV channel RTL, owned by Bertelsmann, reached 50% of their main target audience and gained subsequently high advertising revenues (Bertelsmann AG, b, 23; Kruse). The Bertelsmann-owned record company BMG produced No.1 hits and gained a bigger market share on the German market (ola/ct; dpa; Finkenwirth). The concert revenues and the merchandising revenues were also marketed by companies held by the Bertelsmann Group (Kurp; MMC Productions GmbH).

With the transformation of record companies into music marketing companies and sometimes their integration into media corporations, unauthorized copies and the subsequent loss of record sales revenues is not a major issue anymore, since a major part of the revenues generated by one artist often comes from different sources and growing markets, unaffected by unauthorized copies.

Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2005 - Republished with Permission

Tips For Bands And Artists Seeking Management Part 2 Of 2: Finding And Working With A Manager

Tips For Bands And Artists Seeking Management

Part 2 Of 2: Finding And Working With A Manager

by Jeremy Rwakaara,

Finding a manager

MusicDish Network Sponsor

Once you've decided that you are ready for management, there are several ways you can find a manager. You should first take stock of what you have to offer (besides your talent). It helps to have a good idea about yourself and your style. Don't expect a manager to be able to perform an assortment of miracles all by themselves. You have to come to the table with some elements in place and be willing to work hard to formulate the rest. The manager can help you to articulate your vision, find others that believe in you, and get you into the hands of interested and successful music industry professionals.

Once you are sure you have something to offer, you can ask club owners, attorneys, publicists, recording studio engineers, record producers, independent record label owners, and other artists that are signed if they have any management company recommendations. You can also find a list of managers from music industry print directories (e.g. the Musicians Atlas, the Indie Contact Bible, the Industry Yellow Pages, Pollstar, the Recording Industry Sourcebook, etc.) or online directories like the one at the Indie Managers Association and others.

Pay close attention to the submission policies of the management company before mailing anything out. Some managers will only accept solicited material (material submitted to them from known sources). Others are willing to accept unsolicited materials, while others prefer you to call or email first. Do not violate these policies. It is almost always a good idea to call or email first before you send anything (unless they tell you not to call or email first). Contacting them before you send materials gives you a chance to talk to somebody and find out what they are looking for and what materials will be most appropriate to send.

Working with a manager

It is important that you speak with artists who are already signed to the management company (if the manager has an artist roster) before approaching a manager. If the artists have stayed with the manager for a long time and have a good relationship, you can take that as a sign of a commitment for the long-term, which is a good thing.

Be wary of managers that don't ask a lot of questions about you, your goals, and your achievements. Don't be offended by these questions, since they only serve to identify areas of opportunity or career challenges that the manager should know about.

Even though there is no standard commission that a manager should take, be cautious of a manager who talks about commissioning 25% or more of your earnings. 10% - 15% (or in some instances 20%, depending upon the circumstances), is more in line with what's fair. Whatever you do, don't sign a contract on the spot without taking time to have it reviewed by an entertainment attorney. Few things are so urgent that both parties can't take a few days (or weeks) of their time to negotiate a contract that will bind them together for several years and involve potentially several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The manager-artist relationship is a very important one, and you must be sure that the manager is a right fit for you (and vice-versa). Many times, a manager will approach you before you get a chance to approach them. This is not necessarily a bad thing since it makes sense that you came to their attention by creating a buzz in your area, selling a lot of CDs, receiving radio airplay or great reviews or putting on a great live show. If this is the case, you should expect them to know a lot about you and ask a lot of questions.

A sign of a good manager is that plenty of dialogue will take place before the contract is offered and signed. You should spend a lot of time discussing your short and long-term career goals and seeing how they can help you achieve what you want. You should ask them what ideas they have to get you where you are trying to go. You should also check to make sure that the potential manager doesn't have too many artists on their roster, and that they will have enough time to devote to your career.

A potential manager should like your type of music and be familiar with how an artist like you should be promoted and marketed. It is extremely important to find a manager that is the right fit and if you can't find one, you are much better off managing yourself until the right one comes along.

If you find a manager that sounds interesting, try and set up a six-month trial period to see if you are compatible with each other before signing a long-term management agreement t. Only accept friends, friends-of-friends, family members, etc., as potential managers if they have some experience in managing artists in your genre, have some industry contacts, and know how the music business works. These people are often well intentioned but can cause more harm than good with what they don't know.

The management contract

Discussing the details of an artist-manager contract is beyond the scope of this article, so when it comes to signing, it is important that you have the contract drafted and/or negotiated by an experienced entertainment attorney who is well-versed in similar entertainment / management contracts.

The important thing about a contract is that it should define in no uncertain terms the nature of the relationship between the parties. It should also spell out how, if at all, you can get out of the deal if the manager is not performing as promised, and what the penalties for non-performance should be. You should also understand how and for what duration commissions are to be paid after the management contract has been terminated.

As long as everybody understands their roles, works hard, and follows through with their commitments, everything should be fine even if you don't sell a million records or sell out Madison Square Garden.

Hopefully this article has helped shed some light on the question of finding managers. Obviously, these are mainly my opinions and others are free to disagree in whole or in part with what I have said here. Get legal advice, consult your gut feeling, do plenty of reading, use some common sense, and ask a lot of questions before signing with a management contract with a manager.

Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2005 - Republished with Permission