Music Business: Music Manager Paper
Introduction
The music managers are people, who are directly involved in the artist’s career. First of all, they coordinate the work of one musician or even group; they are responsible for the musician’s wage, help in decision-making, plan the concerts and perform other functions.
As a rule, music manager can be a single person, who controls all aspects of the career of the artist or group, from contract negotiations to a long-term career planning. It is important to note that the manager of the artist does not act as agents, promoters, booking- or business managers. He finds appropriate specialists in order to provide effective development and professional growth of the artist (SkinDeep).
Music managers are engaged in the promotion of the artist or label albums, tours and advertising organization and other activities. Successful managers know how to benefit from the experience and passion for music. The secret lies in the fact that the manager has to be always aware of the latest music events and directions for further development. It helps to promote the musical group (Rwakaara).
Let’s analyze how the music manager Hamish Duff has started his career and promoted the first his artist.
Discussion
Education, skills and experience play an important role in the career of the music manager. In our case, Hamish Duff has started his career as a travel artist manager immediately after his graduation. And then at some point, people from the Sanctuary label offered him to work.
Nowadays, the manager Duff knows how to defend the interests of the musician, negotiate contracts and even influence on the music of the artist or group, where it will be necessary to. Thus, one can say that the music manager, Duff, carries a producer, promoter, coordinator and sometimes even sponsor functions (Blue Williams).
It should be noted that Duff always tries to carefully work with the artist’s reputation and build a fan base. The artist’s reputation is the first feature that the music manager tries to create or support. It is based on the fashion style, interests, relationships of the artist and others.
Duff usually engages in the booking and organizational issues. At the same time, his role is only to find a promoter and to be a connecting link between the client (artist) and all other persons of the industry, as well as to make the tour schedule and conduct the whole process of the preparation for a promotional campaign.
One of the important functions of Duff is a team-management. Duff usually worked with the musical groups, that’s why building a cohesive team helped to promote artists. Duff motivated the artists to the actions (writing new songs, joint projects with other groups) that helped them on the way to success and public recognition. He worked with such groups as The xx, Vampire Weekend, The Teenagers. All these groups have been at the beginning of their growth, when they have worked with Duff. In this case, the authority of manager almost always played a crucial role for the musicians.
The biographical and personal attitudes also play an important role for the artist manager and his work with the artist. A degree in music business or business project management is quite desirable for the music manager. It provides a large social circle, partners in the show-business and music industry. For example, such employers as William Morris Endeavor and International Creative Management require candidates only with the music or related education (Elkabas). In our case, Duff did not have a special music education initially. He started his career from the lowest position. Duff studied and worked simultaneously during the first several years. Gained experience has allowed Duff to rise to a higher level in his career.
Each music manager needs good knowledge and minimum experience in order to effectively promote the real musician. For example, a manager can create a personal online business card with services offered or send a mini-presentation to groups via email or hand out business cards at different meetings. The music manager can enter into the new level of carrier using above mentioned methods: he can make more useful friends or can get more invitations to the concerts and other events (Hooper). Nowadays, Duff has own profile on such popular web resource as Linked In and has many useful contacts (Hamish Duff).
The music manager is usually responsible for the promotion strategy of the artist and his popularity. The last one requires a certain way to dress up, because the audience initially assesses the musician visually. Also, it is important to make the right impression on the art director of the club and the people, who are responsible for the organization of concerts. This was the most important function of Duff, when he worked with the group The Teenagers. The appearance and clothes style together, play a crucial role for the youth, who is usually the target audience of the musical group. At the same time, Duff pays a great attention to the promotional campaign of the musical group, using different types of the marketing activity. He usually uses the offline advertising techniques as well as the Internet-campaign in order to effectively promote the artists. It can be official site, video clips on YouTube, and articles about young singers, blog or others. Anyway, Duff usually divides the promotion strategy in the Internet into two parts. The first of them is usually the promotional video or the personal site of the musical group. The second part assumes the cooperation within creative projects in order to increase the number of in the digital space.
It should be noted that such Internet resource as YouTube becomes quite popular for the modern youth. In this case, Duff pays a great attention to the reputation of artists and their popularity on the Internet, especially, on YouTube. At the same time, first clips of the musical group can be quite simple, but must attract the target audience by their creativity and unusualness. Such video can spread on the network in a short period of time with the effect of the blast wave, exalting the artists at the peak of glory.
Conclusion
In summary, one can say that each music manager is an important and reliable person in the life of each musical group, with which he worked. The professional activity of the music manager Hamish Duff and his personal attributes are analyzed in this paper. He worked with different musical groups, especially, during their formation stage in the show-business. The most important tasks of Duff were to attract new investors, to create an unusual image of the musical group and to manage an effective promotion campaign.
Works Cited
Blue Williams, Michael. "Advice For Being A Manager - Artistshousemusic". Artistshousemusic.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 July 2016.
Elkabas, D. "So What Does A Music Manager Do, Exactly?". the Guardian. N.p., 2013. Web. 29 July 2016.
Hamish Duff,. "Hamish Duff. Personal Profile". Linked In. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.
Hooper, David. "7 Qualities To Look For In A Good Music Manager". Music Marketing [dot] com. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 July 2016.
Rwakaara, Jeremy. "How To Become A Music Artist Manager". Artistmanagementresource.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 July 2016.
SkinDeep,. "The Secret To Being A Good Artist Manager". skindeepdj. N.p., 2012. Web. 29 July 2016.
