For many artists and bands the first contract that they have to face is the management contract. The manager will have a lot of responsibility and possible control so it is vital to get the right person and the right agreement.<\/p>\n
The manager may come from various backgrounds \u2013 he\u2019s a friend of the band, works already in the music industry, is an entrepreneur from a different industry or just has heard about the band\u2019s potential and swoops in.<\/p>\n
A manager should have one of the following but ideally all:<\/p>\n
Things you should be checking out for in the Management Contract<\/p>\n
1. Make sure the management is not asking for upfront payments from you. That is a big, big no-no!\u00a0 These would be similar to vanity publishing deals but without the benefit of having a product. Stay\u00a0away as they are simply trying to take money from you instead of making money for you.<\/p>\n
2. Don\u2019t take advice from the manager\u2019s own lawyer \u2013 it will not be impartial and will ultimately benefit\u00a0\u00a0the manager. If the manager does not want you to see a lawyer then alarm bells should be going, not only because he sounds like he is trying to hide something but it also shows his business naivety. The reason George Michael was stuck in his \u201cbad\u201d deal with Sony was because he had had independent legal representation from a lawyer experienced in music law before he signed that contract. If he had not had that advice he may have been able to walk away and get a better deal.<\/p>\n
3. Check your manager\u2019s commission. Standard is 20%. It should not be more than this without good reason. Brian Epstein charged the Beatles 25% but reasoned this was because he had been paying the band a wage for some time before signing the contract.<\/p>\n
Make sure you know what the 20% is going to be of. Usually it says artist gross receipts. Things that the manager should never take a percentage of are:<\/p>\n
4. Don\u2019t be tied into a deal with a bad manager. Make sure that you have an initial period clause\u00a0 (maybe 12 months) in which the manager must reach certain goals to enable the contract to continue for a longer period. These goals may be:<\/p>\n
If any of these or maybe all of them are achieved the manager can then exercise his option to extend the contract by a longer period (often 3 years).<\/p>\n
5. Check what commission is due to the manager after the contract has ended. These are known as sunset clauses. Make sure that they are only for a short period (maybe 3 -5 years) and that the percentages of commission reduce down each year AND that they only relate to work that the manager has contributed to. You don\u2019t want the ex-manager getting paid for recording or songs created after he had split with you.<\/p>\n
6. Don\u2019t let the manager sign deals on your behalf. It may seem obvious but it has happened and the artist is left in a contract that he didn\u2019t want and had no say in!<\/p>\n
Times are changing:<\/p>\n
Today the music manager should not be out there just trying to secure a major deal<\/p>\n
BUT SHOULD BE<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Running the band\u2019s record label<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Organizing the myspace, twitter, soundcloud & facebook<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Creating & selling merchandise<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Organising marketing campaigns<\/p>\n