Negotiations through the eyes of an Artist Manager

What most people don’t understand is that artist management is a skill that some lack. I say down with Sonya Mixon, former artist manager for 69 Boyz, 95 South and 24K. While talking with her we touched on the topic of negotiations. Sonya Mixon began in artist management by accident in 1993 with 69 Boyz, 95 South and 24 K. She has worked with “Thrill The Playa” as well as “CC Lemon Head”. She has encountered various negotiations for them such a Artist Deals, Production, Tours, Management and even Endorsements. When it comes to negotiations Pastor Sonya Mixon expressed the use of making sure of “having a plan before approaching your negotiations”, “researching your opponent”, remaining stern and to the point as well as having leverage over who you are negotiating with.

Ways that she went about this was through having an iron clad contract as well as “rider” for your artist. Also by knowing what your client is worth, what they are looking for and what they are capable of you are able to approach any negotiation confident that the person is going to agree with you.

She has negotiated several things from venue contracts, endorsements, and even production deals. Pastor Mixon has had to negotiate at one point a production that began at 5 million dollars and eventually ended at 3 million dollars. In this deal the label wanted to only offer 2 million dollars, her client requested 5 million. When the negotiations finally ended they approached a deal of 3 million dollars which ensured that each producer (3 of them) were allotted 1 million dollars each to produce an album. In order to be certain that your negotiations are successful in the artist management field you have to know your clients market, know what other artists offer, the industry, know what the client is looking from the negotiations as well as what the person you are negotiating with is ultimately looking for.