The Evolving Role of the Artist Manager

As we all know, the music industry has changed quite a bit in the last decade for several different reasons and in several different ways. As the industry changes, so do the positions within it. The position that I will be focusing on is one that has been evolving for quite some time. This is the artist manager.

Because musicians are straying away from labels, the artist manager position has take on some of the roles that would normally be done by the label. A&R and artist development have shifted into more of an artist manager duty. Managers are now finding talent on their own rather than through a label, and developing the artist themselves as well. A lot of managers are taking on all the tasks that a label would normally be doing. They are promoting the music, selling the music, getting TV and film deals, getting major endorsement deals, arranging travel, and booking concerts for their artists.

The role of artist manager has always been to take artists as far as they can go in their careers. What has changed is what the artists’ career will look like. Before, the artist manger’s main goal would have been to land a huge record deal. Today, artists have so many different career goals and some aren’t even interested in a record deal. A lot of artists today want to stay independent rather than sign with a major label so it is essentially the manager’s place to do what the label would have done.

Before, a label was the heart of an artist or band and getting a deal with a record label was an artists’ main goal. Because of the changes within the music industry this has changed and artists are relying more on the manager rather than a label to get them where they want to go in their music careers. In my opinion, a good enough manager could take an artist to the top with no label behind them. The role of artist manager will continuously evolve as well as the industry itself.