Artists and musicians are misunderstood on what exactly the roles of their talent managers are. Many artists that are fortunate to have a manager understand that hiring a manager is a business partnership to take the artist’s brand to the next level. In that same breathe, few understand why managers will council and make decisions that will strengthen the brand. Here is some insight on why talent managers make decisions they make.
Making Money
No one wants to slave away countless hours without seeing a return on their investment of time. Managers will go through long lengths to develop strategies to create brand value for their artist and respective brands. Earlier in one’s career as a musician, you don’t have enough leverage to truly bring in loads of cash off your intellectual property, but it will be the managers role to provide opportunities that will do just that. Every decision should be weighed on how will this be a sound business decision from a monetary or promotion perspective.
Three Channels
Product creation, distribution, and promotion. These three channels should be closely considered when creating a budget, producing a product, and developing marketing strategies. You can’t have one without the others. Would Coca-Cola produce it’s classic soda pop without knowing how they would distribute and promote it? Musicians and artists fail to recognize that once it is in distribution channels, that’s when the hard work and promotion really begins. Once you have the product in hand, how will you get it in retail or digital stores and how will folks know that your product is there? I call that the “product triangle.”
Growth
You are only good as your last project, product, or service. You want to be able to top your last effort each and every time. Growth cannot be measured in how many followers, likes, and subscribers you have but how many of those followers, likes, and subscribers will buy into your brand and convert over into sales. Developing a plan that will prove an incline in product demand and sales growth shows true growth in your brand.
