When looking at the middle right corner of my blog you will find my RSS feed for “Music Think Tank. On Nov. 9th, 2010 an article was written about “Management in the Industry”. There were three different subtopics that were very interesting: “Apply Strategy and Planning to improve Value by the Music Expertise, The focus of future research to Improve Management in the Music Industry, and Filters used to determine if I am the right fit with a potential client.” All of the sub-topics are essential to the music industry.
The article begins to touch on the importance of strategic planning in order to ensure you create a business that others will want to be apart. When creating an artist management company you have to develop a mission statement that you want all of your clients to live up to when it comes to their music. You also have to plan out your path to success. May it be via marketing and or how you will distribute your music, it has to be an effective strategy for your music enterprise. Lack of planning can cause everything to work less efficiently and efficiently due to lack of targeting your correct audience. If a music enterprise does not properly plan their marketing strategies it can lead to resources being wasted and a product becoming less valuable. When a product is less valuable it will produce less revenue.
In order to create a management company that withstands the ups and downs of the music industry you must remain focused and consistently research your industry for the “next big thing”. Change is inevitable in the music industry. You just have to plan accordingly so that you are not left behind. There will always be emerging technologies, whether it’s in the form of audio devices to music styles. As an artist and/or artist manager you must always research and be willing to adapt to the constantly changing industry. This seems to be a problem with some artist because they feel that if you crossover to “pop” music you are selling out. Swaying away from their original genre of music sometimes isn’t always bad for an artist or manager it is a way of re-inventing yourself and your music.
Managers have to learn to develop filters. Not every artist is going to fit into the style of managing that you use and vice versa. When creating your filter you must decide before you actually sign an artist what you will be able to work with or not work with. Whether you would want to manage single artists or groups, artists who are already established or artists that are up and coming. You should think of goals and aspirations as a filter when forming your company. Even though a particular artist may have the sound you want, take into consideration what direction the two of you are going. Also the artist may want to know what your accomplishments are or what type of skills you can bring to the table. All of this has to come with careful planning prior to the formation of your management company. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail!
Source: Music Think Tank Blog
