A plan is often referred to as a roadmap to get you from where you are now to where you want to be—here’s where it starts, these are the steps, and there is the goal. Just follow the plan and you’ll achieve the objective. The theory works perfectly for things like baking a cake. However, the plan for the career of an artist who is newly signed with a manager certainly has a beginning, but that is where the parallel with baking a cake ends. The music business is so highly competitive and changes so quickly, at the whims of pop culture and technology, that the steps to achieve the goal need to flex with reality. The practical window for a career plan is no more than three years, and even in the third year it is unlikely that it will look the same after the many revisions the plan will undergo over time. There are two resources an artist manager has that are never unlimited: time and money. Knowing how much of each is available is important to create a reasonable and viable plan for the artist.
The career plan is far from being something that is chiseled in stone and it isn’t intended to be strictly followed. Any plan must be flexible, and the artist career plan will require modification on a monthly basis—perhaps more often. A plan like this is a guide that is a reflection of reality, and the artist’s reality will change very often the first year or two of a new career. The plan will need to be modified as circumstances change. For example, some goals will be achieved quicker than anticipated and, likewise, some will take longer than expected. There is nothing wrong with this. It is the reality that an ambitious plan designed to navigate a highly competitive industry will require continuous updating.
The career plan for each artist on a manager’s client list provides an ongoing guide for both the manager and the artist. And it also gives each artist an outline of the priorities that were made in collaboration with the manager, how those priorities became goals, and how time will be used to achieve the goals. Notice the word “collaboration.” It is a key concept in the creation of a career plan for an artist. The manager has a vision of how the plan should look and what the goals should be. That vision will include the general steps that are necessary to get artists where they should be, given their talents and the commercial marketplace for them. However, the artist career plan is not a plan without input and agreement by the artist. Artists must see the plan as achievable before they will genuinely be willing to commit the time and energy to its success. And the manager should prod the artist to join him or her by setting the goals of the plan as high as possible without going beyond what both feel are realistic. Artists sometimes set career goals below their abilities, ensuring that they will be successful and avoiding the disappointment of failure. Know that artists will sometimes go along with setting goals extremely high, being fully aware that they are unrealistic and that they will ultimately be sabotaging their career. It becomes the role of the manager to find the point that creates a realistic career plan that the artist genuinely buys into.
Some sections of the artist career plan will include information that is very familiar to both the artist and the manager. For example, if one of the artist’s talents is playing any kind of guitar ranging from four strings to twelve, it is something both are very well aware of. However, part of the reason to create a written plan is to allow for the possibility that someone else may need to take over management of the artist. The substitute manager may not be immediately aware of this range of talents being developed without the plan as a reference. Someone else might be called in to help manage an artist’s career because the manager may become ill, the manager may have a sudden increase in his or her client list, or one artist on the client list may require immense amounts of time and someone else may need to step in temporarily to help with managing the artist. The written plan should include all the details that are obvious to the artist and the manager because they may not be obvious to another manager or an assistant.
As the artist manager begins to put together the plan for a new client, there will be the temptation to cut and paste sections from previous artist career plans, assuming that any exist. Remember that each plan is as unique as the artist, and that six months can see important changes in the music business that the manager must be sure to incorporate into the latest artist plan.
An extensive outline of the plan is presented at the end of this chapter. In a capsule, this is the plan outline we will discuss in the following pages:
Recording Artist Business Plan
I. About the artist
Musical genre
Biography
Talents
Experience
Uniqueness of the artist
II. Evaluation of the artist
Strengths and weaknesses of the artist
Opportunities and threats
Action points based on this evaluation
III. Evaluation of the manager
Strengths and weaknesses of the manager
Opportunities and threats
Conflicts of interest
IV. Establishment of goals and timelines
Major goals for the artist (and sample strategies and tactics to achieve them)
Goals supporting major goals (subordinate to major goals and sample strategies and tactics to achieve them)
Timeline for each goal
V. Development of a marketing plan
State of the industry
The target for the artist
Detailed plans to reach the target
VI. Business framework
Form of the business
Personnel requirements
Insurance
Other
VII. The financial plan
Personal budget for artist
Budget for career plan
VIII. Exit strategy
The artist in a mature career
Plan by the manager to end the relationship
Because the artist career plan is a collaboration between the manager and the artist, some of the point-by-point discussion of the plan in the rest of this chapter includes considerations from both the perspectives of the manager and of the artist.
The first section of the plan focuses on the artist. The artist is the central part of the business relationship and actually defines the artist as a branded product in the traditional way of viewing commercial products. It is the artist manager’s task to define the commercial viability of the artist as a product and to help develop and exploit all of the artist’s talents in the marketplace. The marketplace in this instance is one where customers (fans) are able and willing to buy performance tickets, recordings, and merchandise.
Artists must be able to say in a few words what kind of music they perform and what audience they are identified with. They must be clear on the kind of audience they will appeal to and, if their music is to be pitched to radio, where the music is likely to be heard. The reason this is important for artists is that they will be asked continuously by people unfamiliar with them as an artist, “What kind of music do you do?” When artists have a keen sense of who they are, artistically and commercially, they show a sense confidence to others that says, “I’m ready.”
To the manager, it is important to have an understanding of the marketplace for the musical genre. Often, managers will seek artists to manage who are within musical genres they understand. But sometimes a manager will find a talented artist with commercial potential that isn’t within the same genre. For example, veteran artist manager Simon Renshaw has simultaneously managed the diverse platinum-selling musical careers of country, metal, and pop artists.
The biography should be created by a third-party professional, such as a publicist, and it should be relatively inexpensive to produce. An experienced publicist will be able to put together the basics of a bio but will also be able to find the “back story,” meaning that they will discover things in an artist’s background that distinguish him or her from everyone else who is trying to sing a song and become a star. At this point, the bio will already be a part of the press kit if it has been created. If it is not written, it needs to be done now because the background of the artist will be a key component of marketing communications that the manager and others will use in the months ahead.
Including this section in the career plan will help the manager and the artist define the range of talents an artist currently has. This includes anything that the artist does as a performer or a songwriter that lets them demonstrate the range of their artistry. Make this section as detailed as possible, including any talents the artist may have developed in the past that are no longer used. For example, if an artist learned to play the violin in grade school but hasn’t played one in years, this is the place to note that for future reference because it might be redeveloped into a performance asset.
This section can also be the place that outlines talents the artist does not have. There may be some skills or talents the artist and manager feel should be developed, and including them in this section will help assure that they become part of the plan and find a place on the timeline for the future. For example, if the artist wants to learn to play the piano to help when he or she begins to learn songwriting, this is a good section in which to include it.
Assessing the experience of an artist can help both manager and client discover things in the artist’s background that can smooth the transition into a quicker paced career. Many artists have had several years of seasoning in preparation for a high-profile career, and some of the experiences from those times can help them in their career. Artists who began their own career in the music business have had to do most of the tasks associated with it for themselves, and that can be useful. For example, if the manager knows that the artist has done bookkeeping for a group he or she was in, it can make the creation of a career plan easier for the manager and the business manager.
The range of experience for an artist can include:
• Performing as a front person or backup musician on stage
• Writing songs
• Playing instruments
• Managing tours
• Booking shows
• Creating musical arrangements
• Developing and planning stage performances
• Studio performance
• Bookkeeping
• Website creation and management
• Effectively managing digital and social media
• Press relations
• Producing recordings
Previous conversations with the artist might not have revealed the range of experience the artist has, and this part of the planning process will help to define the talents that are available to be exploited, and to begin planning how to use them to the advantage of the artist’s career.
Promotional planning in marketing departments looks for ways to spin a product as being “new and different,” and then highlights the benefits to consumers that will become part of the advertising message. It is not much different with the artist. In this section of the plan, the artist and manager will define the features of the client’s artistry that make him or her unique, different, and relevant to commercial music. Often publicists can be helpful in this process because they are experienced in seeking the media value of potential stories in the music business. This section of the plan will also be helpful in refining the target market for the sale of tickets and recordings. There will be more about this later in the plan.
The previous section took an objective look at the talents and skills that the artist brings into their career. This section provides a critique and evaluation of the artist. The intent here is not to criticize the artist, but to evaluate the artist with the purpose of finding ways to make the artist more competitive. Students of business management will recognize this as a SWOT analysis, which creates an analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the artist. Using this tool can give both the artist and manager a candid review of where the artist is as the plan begins, and it will also be helpful in defining goals later in this plan.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Artist
This section of the evaluation of the artist looks at factors that are internal to the artist, meaning that they are often within the control of the artist and the manager to exploit (strengths) and to improve (weaknesses). These can simply be lists of phrases that highlight both of these elements of evaluation. For example, a strength can be “the artist has charisma in both their stage performance and in personal interviews,” and a weakness can be “the group has had frequent personnel changes.” Note that both of these are internal to the artist as defined previously.
These are circumstances that affect, or have the potential to affect, the career of the artist that are external to the artist, meaning that they exist but are out of control of either the manager or the artist. In other words, the artist career plan must be structured so the artist will thrive because of the opportunities, and despite the threats. An example of an opportunity is “the musical genre of the artist is seeing a significant growth,” and a threat might be “there are too many artists with a similar performing style.” The challenge for the manager is to try to keep ahead of the threats that are brought about by the evolving business model of the industry and the continuous changes in technology, and the ways both impose on the earning streams of the artist.
Action Points Based on this Evaluation
An action point is something that requires planning to turn it into an activity that will develop the career of the artist. When the SWOT analysis is complete, the manager and artist will have a list of points around which the development of the artist’s career can be planned. The section of the plan that identifies goals and their strategies will rely on the implications of the SWOT analysis and will help the manager prioritize the timing of activities supporting the artist’s career.
This part of the artist career plan is directed at the manager, and, because of the nature of it, the manager may choose to omit it from the formal plan shared with the artist. In this section, the manager will give an honest assessment of his or her ability to manage an artist in this musical genre. It is a SWOT analysis for the benefit of the manager. As each new client is acquired and each career plan is created, the manager should generate this analysis as a continuing assessment of their growth as an artist manager. Artists in turn should conduct their own assessment of the manager using a SWOT analysis so they can have conversations with the manager about their planning based on what they have learned through reading this book.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Manager
For the experienced manager of artists within a familiar genre, this section of the manager’s evaluation will be relatively straightforward, and requires a measure of introspection. With the passage of time, the strengths will improve and the weaknesses should diminish. However, for the manager who does not keep current with trends in the roles of artist management, a candid review of weaknesses will reveal areas of necessary improvement. It will also reveal opportunities for the manager to consider taking short courses or attend brief seminars in management to sharpen his or her skills.
In a competitive world like the music business, it is necessary for managers to continuously improve their knowledge and abilities to advance the careers of their clients.
This analysis will help the manager to develop a discipline of continually keeping abreast of the music business in areas that will be helpful to this specific artist. As mentioned frequently in this book, there is no area of the industry that remains static and it is imperative that the manager continuously reads all available information about the genre of the artists in the client list from sources like Pollstar magazine, Billboard, and available Internet sources such as AllAccess.com and http://CMJ.com. Listing the resulting opportunities and threats will provide an active and ongoing awareness of these matters. For example, if a manager learns that the latest recording contracts offered to new artists require that the artist must give up a portion of ticket sales from performances, the manager must develop a strategy with the artist’s attorney to minimize the impact of this on the earnings of the artist. On the other hand, if the manager is working with a non-songwriting artist who records for his or her own independent label and learns that the mechanical rate for licensing songs for recordings is increasing, it will be necessary to advise the artist that song royalties on their singles and albums will go up, increasing the cost of the music they sell.
For every career plan, the manager should evaluate and disclose to the artist any potential conflicts of interest. There are the obvious conflicts noted earlier in this book, such as the manager owning a publishing company or a recording studio. As the plan is assembled, the manager should note any new conflicts of interest that have developed, such as managing or planning to manage artists who have similar talents as the artist for whom this plan is being created. The acknowledgment of any conflict of interest in this plan can minimize possible disagreements that might affect the relationship the manager develops with the artist.
ESTABLISHMENT OF GOALS AND TIMELINES
In this section of the career plan, the artist and manager discuss career priorities in the short term and the long term. The goals for the artist should be set in clear terms so that both understand them and both agree with them. The goals must be realistic and deliverable and the timelines for achievement must be realistic given everything else that is happening to support the artist’s career.
Major Goals for the Artist and Sample Strategies and Tactics to Achieve Them
A short-term goal might be for the artist to write songs to prepare for performances of original works. The short term in this case might be defined as within the next six months. As the plan is put together, a definition of terms such as “short term” is necessary to be sure the elements of the plan are realistic in the eyes of the artist.
An intermediate goal might be to perform some of these songs as the opening act for an established artist. Major steps to get the artist to this point will likely require recruiting musicians, rehearsing, booking shows to get experience performing, creating a recording to be available for fans, and perhaps securing a recording contract with an established label. A budget must be prepared to include funding sources to cover the expenses. It is not uncommon for an artist or a label to pay for the privilege of opening for an established artist.
A long-term goal could be to become a headliner. The artist and manager might see this as something that will happen in eighteen months or perhaps two years or longer. Steps to get the artist to this point can include local and regional touring, establishing an increasing fan base, creation of a second recording with or without a record company, creating a bigger stage show, and seeking bookings at larger and larger venues. All of these points are ideas that have myriad details that become part of the strategies to support the goals themselves. Other longer-term goals could include things like getting a major recording contract, getting a publishing contract, getting a movie or television acting deal—anything the artist genuinely believes is possible and that the manager can support by creating a plan to achieve.
Many of the lesser goals that the artist and manager include in the plan can be viewed as subordinate goals, meaning that when these goals are achieved, they will support a larger outcome. For example, an artist might want to learn to write songs, and it would become subordinate to a major goal of getting a songwriting publishing deal. Perhaps the artist wants to learn to play an instrument. This supports a goal of adding the playing of instruments into the artist’s stage performance. A goal of getting studio experience could be a short-term goal that would support a larger goal of singing demos or recording an album.
Each of these goals requires a strategy with a timetable to assure that the artist stays focused and on target to achieve them. With the strategies formulated, there will be daily tasks called tactics that ensure regularly budgeted time and energy to support the strategies the artist and manager have agreed to.
Putting the goals on paper and then pasting them into a visual timeline can be revealing. The goals must be identified by name, starting date, and completion date. When they are put into a timeline, it is apparent how time has been budgeted and how many things are happening at the same time. A timeline can reveal that there is too much or too little going on at certain times, and an adjustment is necessary.
As noted previously, the inclusion of a visual representation of the goals and their related tasks can be helpful in budgeting time, as well as eliminating the frustration of having too many or not enough things going on at the same time. A timeline for each goal should be created followed by a master timeline that incorporates the start and end dates for all major goals.
As timelines are prepared for goals, this is the time to attach a list of the gatekeepers who will influence the success of the goal. A gatekeeper is someone who has the ability to say “no” to your being able to advance through a portal along the career path. When setting up the goals and timelines, make note of who the gatekeepers are by title, by name, and by company, and include any contact information you can find about them. Also include the names of anyone within your network of professional contacts who might know the gatekeeper and can help you get past them.
The artist manager can find timeline software from companies such as Simplicity, which is relatively easy to learn and use. Older versions of their software are available at little or no cost on the Web and are very easy to apply to an artist’s career plan. Web sources for timeline software and other useful links are always available at this book’s website, www.artistmanagementonline.com.
As you list gatekeepers, this is also the time to note checkpoints you will use as barometers to determine the progress with the goal. Checkpoints are nothing more than marks on your timeline that cause you to ask the question, “Is this where we thought we’d be at this time? If not, what should we do?” Equally important is the need to change any of the timings or the strategies you are using to reach the goal. Remember, a plan is not something that is set in stone. It requires you to revisit it often to ensure the plan and its goals remain realistic. This means the artist and the manager should schedule at least a monthly review of the plan and its objectives to be sure the priorities remain the same, and then make any adjustments to it that are necessary.
Each goal will have its costs in terms of money or time. For example, if a goal is to write songs, it means the artist might not have time to do as much travel for paid performances. Indirect costs like this can be significant. Perhaps the goal is to learn to play piano as an added feature for the artist’s stage performances. Learning the piano has indirect costs, but it also includes payment to teachers and the cost of purchasing pianos for the artist to use for practice and on stage. As the manager puts together these costs, it is important that the artist understands them and agrees with the goal, given its cost in both money and time.
DEVELOPMENT OF A MARKETING PLAN
Much of the work of an artist manager is being an advocate for the artists in the client list. In this circumstance, advocate is another word that means salesman and promoter. So it is not surprising that one of the key elements of the career plan includes brand management and the creation of a marketing plan for the artist. The plan requires a look at the business environment to determine the state of the industry the artist will become a part of and then looks at the target market, or fans, whose money will become the basis to support the artist’s career.
Using secondary research sources like trade magazines can provide the information a manager needs to evaluate the genre and generate ideas on how to position the artist to become a successful part of it. All things considered, it is important to know whether music and tickets sales are stable or declining.
It is important to know how recordings for a similar artist have been selling. For a new artist, for example, the manager will want to look at SoundScan data for new artists over the last year and see whether they have had sales success. Likewise, the manager will want to look at the Pollstar magazine data for ticket sales for performances for the same reasons. Because every artist is different, and every artist is not presented in business the same way, looking at historical sales data can be used only in a scenario of “all things being equal.” Perhaps other artists were poorly managed, or may have had recordings that did not appeal to buyers, or perhaps could not get the bookings necessary to support themselves. Look at available data, but use them only as reference points.
The review of an artist’s business performances within the genre also reveals the number of other competing artists. As it discloses the competition, it also gives the manager information to find opportunities for his or her artist.
Any review of the state of the industry would be incomplete without a look at how radio and online streaming services are using music within the genre. Although an artist may have a manager but not a major record deal, it is still important to know which markets for tour stops have support for the music on terrestrial radio (radio with broadcast towers). If radio does not support the music, promotion of a tour will become very different from one in which radio is a supporting element. Nielsen Audio, radio’s audience measurement service in the United States, gives regular updates on radio stations by market and by genre, and they are available at no cost at www.allaccess.com. The manager should also look at opportunities in international markets. Certainly the first markets that English-speaking artists should look toward are the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States, all of which are known to support the purchase of recorded music and concert tickets. However, there are instances where acts like the jazz vocal group, Take 6, have continuing commercial success in Japan and Brazil. It is up to the artist manager to seek opportunities like these for the artist, determine whether it is a practical use of their time, and then present the ideas to the artist for consideration.
The Target Market for the Artist
Earlier in the book we discussed target markets, their attributes, and why they are important to the manager and the artist. In this section of the artist career plan, it is important to specifically define the target group that both the manager and the artist feel will be likely purchasers of the artist’s recorded music and tickets to his or her performances. Here is where the artist and the manager create the narrative description of all possible consumers.
To make a single description would make the target too narrowly focused. If this plan exploits all available talents of the artist, then the artist will have a continuously broadening appeal, and the result will be a growing fan base and a broadened definition of consumers and fans of the music that were not part of the original target. Remember that a career that develops a four-year history may now have a fan base that is no longer in high school, but may be becoming seniors in college; or, a 27-year-old junior executive might now be a 31-year-old who travels frequently. Suddenly it is no longer basic demographic information that defines the consumer; rather, it is now the lifestyles and values of the consumers, and the manager should plan for these changes and be aware that they will happen. The reason many artists’ careers are declining after two or three years is because fans and pop culture have moved on to new music and left those artists behind. This part of the plan acknowledges the likelihood that this will happen and includes the commitment to stay current and relevant.
Likewise, four years into a career will include the creation of new ways for the consumer to use the artist’s music. Technology advances at a rapid pace and the migration of music into new platforms and media is much quicker now than in the days of vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs. The plan in this section must acknowledge the likelihood that these changes will happen, and both the artist and manager commit to keeping the target consumer clearly in mind by considering the social, demographic, uses of kinds of media, and other changes that will happen to the fan base.
So the structure of this section of the plan includes a very specific description of current and anticipated future fans of the artist. This is not only helpful to the artist and manager in their planning, but also to concert promoters who will employ the services of the artist.
Detailed Plans to Reach the Target
Creating this section of the plan will require combined input from the team the artist and the manager assemble on behalf of the artist’s career. The team will consider the goals set out by the artist and will then begin constructing all of the details necessary to create a reasonable plan to get the artist in front of those willing to buy performance tickets, merchandise, digital sound accessories, and recordings. The next section of the career plan will briefly look at the responsibilities of those who make up the team and it outline how and why their participation in this section of the career plan is important.
This part of the plan will, necessarily, be the largest part of the document. It will be replete with the daily tactics necessary to support the strategies to achieve the goals. For the manager, this information will continually be a reminder of where the management of the career should be from day to day and week to week. For artists, it is a continuing guide to let them know the responsibilities shared with the manager to achieve success.
This section of the plan will likely be the part that requires the most revision. Implementation of the career plan is done within the reality of the business environment, and within the continuing changes of the music business requiring that the plan be modified monthly, perhaps weekly, to reflect that reality.
In consultation with the business manager, the accountant, and the attorney, a recommendation will suggest the most appropriate business form for the artist. This will require a forward look at the goals of this plan and their timing. A simple business form may be adequate for the short term, but, as the artist begins to have more elaborate business relationships, it will be necessary to set up the business in a form that may resemble a corporation, a formal partnership, or a limited partnership or company. In the United Kingdom, the decision is whether to be a sole trader, a partnership, a limited company, or a limited liability company, but the attributes of these forms of business entities are very similar to those in the United States (“Business Structure” 2014).
At the beginning of the artist’s career plan, there is a need for initial advice from members of the team in order to launch the business-related activities of the artist. The advice is for planning and budgeting purposes, with their individual areas of expertise becoming a regular part of the support group for the artist. For example, a publicist may initially be consulted to update and refine some of the promotional materials needed for the artist, but they may later become a continuing part of the artist’s team to support touring and other matters.
The professionals who may need to become part of the team could include a publicist, a manager of digital and social media, an attorney, a banker, an accountant, an insurance agent, a business manager, a tour manager, an agent, an image consultant, a show designer or producer, a wardrobe and makeup consultant, a band or backup group, and others. As each of these is introduced into the career plan, a note should be made identifying the costs, if any, that are associated with their services to the artist, as well as the timing of when they will have an impact on the budget.
The plan should include the necessary insurance based on the experience of the manager and the advice of the insurance agent serving on the team. Some of the insurance coverage discussed earlier in this book will not initially be necessary, but it should be put into the plan with an anticipated date on which it will be required, along with an estimate of how much it will cost. For example, if the artist will have a developmental period that will not include touring, broad liability insurance coverage will be unnecessary. However, the manager must plan for the time when it becomes necessary because it creates a cost when touring begins.
Within the business framework of the plan, the manager may suggest that it should include items such as memberships in unions and other professional organizations, subscriptions to publications in print and on the Web, and associating with a performing rights organization.
A Personal Budget for the Artist
The example created in Chapter 6 is a good template to use for this section of the artist’s career plan. Without this element as part of the plan, the work of the manager could become compounded as it becomes necessary to also manage the artist’s personal finances in addition to all of their other responsibilities. This budget should be an annual budget broken down by month, and it is important that it be a reflection of the standard of living to which the artist is accustomed.
Budgeting is not about determining how much money the artist can earn in the next year; budgeting of any kind is actually the process of setting priorities. Within the limits of expected income, the artist and the manager must decide what the most important use of available money is in order to meet the career objectives of the artist. In other words, how do we use these earned resources to meet the goals of this plan?
The budget the manager prepares in order to support the artist’s career plan should be for a three-year time period. The first six months will have considerable certainty, whereas the third year will have very loose estimates of earnings and expenses. All of the sections of this written plan provide important information about the timing and amount of income, and the timing and amount of expense. The budget for the first year should show income and expenses by the month so that the manager can track the available resources to pay for the plan and perhaps postpone some expenses when income doesn’t match the timing of the income. When the monthly budget estimates are complete, they then become the input for the annual budget with the 12 monthly totals combined. The second and third years should be broken down by quarters, again showing the timing of the income and expenses.
It is important to acknowledge revenue and expense timing in the budget. Unless there is a considerable monetary cushion for the manager to rely on, spending earnings before they are earned can create an annoying distraction because the manager must scramble to find ways to cover expenses rather than stay focused on the artist’s career. Some of those major expenses can include the personal budget for the artist, travel expenses, personnel costs, recording costs, plus all of the costs associated with this career plan.
An exit strategy is the plan a manager will use when the business relationship with the artist needs to come to an end because the business simply isn’t there anymore. It doesn’t necessarily mean an end to a personal relationship, but happens when the manager finds that his or her time dedicated to the business of the artist is no longer profitable.
An exit strategy doesn’t have a timeline. There is no specific date on which an artist manager will implement an exit strategy. Circumstances put an exit strategy into action. For example, it becomes clear that an artist has lost mass market appeal and it is time to direct the artist’s career into areas where all can profit from past successes. Likewise, the manager should consider the certainty that the relationship with the artist will change, and consider the possible circumstances that will require the association to change.
The artist career plan must assume there will differences between a career in its prime and a mature career. Careers in their prime will include elements of building fan bases, regular touring (perhaps in larger and larger venues), and issuing new recordings on a regular basis. If the artist and the manager plan for the reality that a career nearly always goes into decline, developing a vision for profiting during the mature career will help prepare for it when it arrives. Mature careers for many artists are a mere three or four years beyond their prime. For others, it may be several years longer. In either case, the artist and the manager should be collecting all of the assets of the career in its prime for use later. For example, the manager should build an audio and video archive of performances and recordings, beginning with the earliest demos. These items should be protected from deterioration and kept somewhere safe. They could be invaluable as the artist relies on these periods of success to fuel later stages of the career.
Too often, artists who achieve a measure of success begin to think it will last forever, but it rarely does. It is a shock when fan attendance at performances declines, and it is surprising to the recording artist who finds that their current recordings aren’t selling on iTunes. Both are signals that things are changing or are about to change. Use this portion of the plan to take a long-term “what if” look at the artist’s career, and consider what can be done now to prepare for it.
Planning by the Manager to End the Relationship
We have referred to the nature of the artist–manager relationship as being like a marriage. It is at the end of the business relationship where it genuinely becomes different. When it is clear that the future of the business between the artist and the manager is ending, the manager must objectively view it for what it is and then break the tie. Time is the most valuable resource an artist manager has, and if that time invested on behalf of the artist is being unproductive with little chance of that changing, it is time to suggest new management to the artist. It does not mean that the manager breaks a friendship; rather, it just means the nature of the relationship changes.
Presidents of record labels are often fired by corporate ownership, replaced by someone new, and the new president quickly pares the label roster and fires unneeded employees. The approach is easy and clean this way because the new president has no relationship with artists whose recordings no longer make money for the company, nor does he or she have a relationship with surplus employees. That is how the corporate world does it. The artist manager, on the other hand, must personally end the relationship with artists who are no longer productive to himself or herself as their manager. It is much more difficult because it is much more personal. Making the decision and acting on it is important, and it is never pleasant. If a manager is slow to act, the nonproductive artist drains time and energy from the manager, the company, and the company’s artists.
For the manager, consider what criteria will be used to decide when it is time to move on to focus on other clients. Perhaps the manager will want to consider when it is time to cut the losses incurred by trying to keep a declining career alive. And the most important “what if” that a manager should always be aware of is the possibility that the artist will choose to move on to another manager. Never take the contract to manage an artist for granted. If a manager does, there will always be the chance that they will be blindsided by the artist who wants quicker career acceleration and will move on to a new manager. An entertainment attorney specializing in artist–manager contracts once said that recording artists who achieve measures of success sometimes replace managers after three or four years—not because they are ineffective, but because they remind them of the days when they were struggling to make a place for themselves in the music business. The manager should plan for an artist to change management at some time, which can help to minimize surprises in their own career, and to always have an exit strategy available for that possibility too.
This exit strategy section of the artist career plan is one that the manager should keep as part of his or her private copy of the plan. Failing to include its consideration may mean that the manager will need to react to a sudden change rather than being ready to deal with possibilities he or she should have already considered.
Here is an outline of the artist’s career plan that can serve as a template to create a working plan for an artist. The plan includes some prompts to assist the manager in assuring relevant considerations are included in the plan. As this is a template, it is only a beginning point; other personalized plan attributes must be added that are unique to the artist and their career goals.
Recording Artist Business Plan
Recording Artist Business Plan
I. |
About the artist |
A. |
Musical genre. |
B. |
Biography. |
C. |
Talents. 1. Sing 2. Play 3. Write 4. Perform 5. Other |
D. |
Experience. 1. Writing 2. Singing 3. Performing 4. Self-promotion of music (digital and social media) 5. Other |
E. |
How the artist is unique from others? 1. What is it about the artist that should be promoted to set them apart from others? |
II. |
Evaluation of the artist |
A. |
Strengths and weaknesses of the artist. |
B. |
Opportunities and threats external to the artist. |
III. |
Evaluation of the manager’s ability to manage an artist in this musical genre |
A. |
Strengths and weaknesses of the manager. |
B. |
Opportunities and threats external to the manager. |
C. |
Real or perceived conflicts of interest. |
IV. |
Establishment of goals/comprehensive timeline for this plan |
A. |
Major goals for the artist and sample strategies and tactics to achieve them. 1. A record deal 2. A publishing deal 3. A tour 4. A movie deal |
B. |
Goals supporting major goals (subordinate to major goals) and sample strategies and tactics to achieve them. 1. Learn songwriting 2. Learn to play an instrument 3. Develop a stage show 4. Perform in smaller, then larger venues 5. Get studio experience |
C. |
1. Beginning and projected achievement dates 2. Gatekeepers (all by position, name, and company) 3. Checkpoints, or significant steps between the beginning and end of the timeline for each goal 4. All direct costs that can be anticipated that are unique to each goal |
V. |
Development of a marketing plan |
A. |
State of the industry. 1. A general evaluation of the genre 2. Sales of recordings within the genre 3. Sales of tickets within the genre 4. Number of competing artists within the genre • Opportunities for new artists within genre 5. Competing artists 6. How the radio format is doing in audience ratings 7. International opportunities there for the genre |
B. |
The target for the artist (those willing to buy tickets and recordings). 1. Demographics 2. Lifestyle 3. Generational attributes 4. Uses of entertainment 5. Uses of music (how it is consumed) 6. Values of the target |
C. |
Plans to reach the target consistent with goals |
VI. |
Business Framework |
A. |
Form of the business. 1. Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation, Subchapter S Corporation, LLC, LLP 2. Personnel requirements, when they should be employed (by calendar quarter), and an estimated cost: • Publicist • Attorney • Banker • Accountant • Digital media manager and webmaster • Insurance advisor • Business manager • Tour manager • Agent • Image consultant • Show designer/producer • Wardrobe consultant • Band 3. Costs associated with personnel, for example the investment into a website |
B. |
1. Life, vehicle, liability, equipment, health |
C. |
Other. 1. PRO, union memberships, NARAS |
VII. |
The financial plan |
A. |
Personal budget for artist. 1. A complete annual budget for the artist that anticipates living expenses and sources of income for the coming 12 months 2. Budget should reflect the standard of living to which the artist is accustomed |
B. |
Budget estimate to support this business plan. 1. Budget is for three years: • First year is monthly • Second and third years are by quarters (90-day periods) • Each annual budget expresses the financial goal for the year 2. Budget for each period shows revenue to include: • Sources of income • The timing of the anticipated receipt of the income 3. Budget for each period shows expenses to include things such as: • Personal budget for the artist • Personnel • Travel • Merchandise • Recording • And all other plan elements that have costs associated with them. |
VIII. |
Exit Strategy |
A. |
Plan by manager to wind down and end the relationship. 1. At what point do you cut your losses? 2. At what point do you move on to more lucrative projects? 3. What do you do if the artist ends the relationship? |
B. |
Plan for the artist to thrive in a mature career. 1. Collect resources during career for use in maturity. 2. Design strategy for smooth transition |
Reference
“Business Structure.” unbiased.co.uk, 2014. Available online at www.unbiased.co.uk/ business-structure (accessed 1 Mar. 2014).