Guides for managers

The 5 things every manager does – strategy, team, deals, money, protection – for an artist, creator or performer of any kind.

The manager runs the whole career; the agent books the work; the business manager handles the money; the lawyer papers the deals.

There's no license – you become a manager by managing someone. Where to start, your first client and getting it in writing.

Trustworthy with money, relentless on opportunities, honest when it's unpopular and organized enough that nothing slips.

When the business of the career starts eating the time you should spend creating. The signals, across talent types.

A commission – a percentage of what the talent earns, usually 15–20%. Not a salary, not a fee: a cut of the income they help generate.

2 managers splitting the role and the commission on the same artist – when it works, when it breaks and how the split is set.

What managers take, the base it's taken on, who gets a cut first, and how shows, royalties and deals each split differently.

The 15–20% norm, why it's on earnings not gross, and when a higher or lower rate is actually justified.

A show offer is a guarantee versus a percentage of net box office – the artist earns the greater. Here's how it works.

Commission on gross or on net is the thing most people get wrong – and the gap is bigger than you'd think.

The contract between an artist and manager – term, territory, scope, exclusivity and the power of attorney – and the terms to get right.

What a manager's commission actually applies to – the income that's in, the common carve-outs, and why touring and merch are often net.

How a manager keeps commissioning deals after the relationship ends – the declining rate, the cap, and what's fair.

What a key-man clause does, and why it matters when you sign with a management company or a label.

The full map – the two copyrights, the royalty types, and how one stream or sync pays the songwriter and the recording owner separately.

Every recording holds two copyrights – the composition (publishing) and the recording (master) – and owning one isn't owning the other.

What a mechanical royalty is, the current US statutory rate, and how streaming mechanicals and The MLC work.

How songwriters get paid when a song is played in public – the PROs (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR) and the writer's vs publisher's share.

The recording's public-performance royalty – SoundExchange, the US terrestrial-radio gap, and collecting abroad.

Licensing music to visual media – the two licenses every placement needs, how the fees work, and the backend.

How a single stream pays three ways, why there's no fixed per-stream rate, and the 1,000-stream threshold.

Recoupment, reserves and reporting lag – how to actually read a royalty statement without getting lost.

How to divide songwriting credit, why a split sheet matters, and how mismatched splits freeze the money.

Administration vs co-publishing, what a publisher actually does, and the black box of unclaimed royalties.

The map of music and talent deals – record deals, advances, the terms that decide who really wins, and brand partnerships.

The main record deal types – who owns the masters, the splits, the advance, and the trade-offs of each.

An advance isn't a loan, but you don't get paid until it's earned back. How recoupment and cross-collateralization actually work.

The terms that quietly cost artists – ownership, options, recoupment, royalty definitions – and what fair looks like.

How album options lock an artist in, why they're one-sided, and what an exclusive deal really means.

How artist brand and endorsement deals work – the structures, what sets the fee, and what to negotiate.

Creator brand deals – rates, usage rights and whitelisting, exclusivity, and the FTC rules you can't skip.

How a live show pays – guarantees, the versus deal, the venue nut, and the end-of-night settlement.

What a tour earns and what it costs – guarantees, merch, crew, transport – and why so many barely break even.

The venue nut, net box office, and the end-of-night settlement – how a show actually gets paid out.

How an agent books and routes a tour – holds and offers, sensible routing, and advancing the show.

How openers get paid (often little), the buy-on, and what a support slot is really worth.

The technical and hospitality rider – what they're for, and the famous no-brown-M&Ms tripwire.

Per diems, the touring crew, and what hired musicians get paid – the people costs of a tour.

The business of managing creators – the income mix across platforms, what the manager does, and why diversification is the whole game.

How managing a creator differs from a musician – the income, the deals, and the fact that the creator is the platform.

How the platforms actually pay – the thresholds, the splits, and why platform money is the cherry, not the cake.

Patreon, subscriptions and direct-to-fan – the steady, algorithm-proof income that anchors a creator's business.

Host-read vs programmatic ads, CPMs, the download threshold that matters, and premium subscriptions.

Twitch and Kick subs, bits, tips, and the sponsorships that often matter more than the platform base.

How model agencies work – mother vs booking agencies, the commission, day rates, and usage fees.

Clubs, touring, specials, and the podcast-to-tour pipeline that drives a modern comedy career.

What an artist actually owns – the copyrights, the masters, the name, the likeness – and why owning the assets is the difference between a paycheck and wealth.

How copyright works – automatic on creation, what registration adds, how long it lasts, and the 35-year right to reclaim it.

The clause that can cost an artist their ownership forever – what work-for-hire means and why it's so dangerous.

Why master ownership matters, who holds it in each deal, and how artists get their masters back.

Why catalogs sell for hundreds of millions – how they're valued, who buys them, and what makes one worth more.

The right of publicity, the college-athlete NIL era, and the new fight over AI and your likeness.

How NIL deals work – the structures, the representation, the rules, and the manager's role.

Why an artist registers their name, how trademark differs from copyright, and the band-name fights that prove the point.

The operational side of management – the team, the company, the taxes, and paying the artist straight. The back office every career needs.

When to add an agent, a lawyer, a business manager and a publicist – what each costs, and the order they usually arrive in.

Releasing music without a label – the distributors, what you keep, what you take on, and the trade-off at the heart of it.

Sole proprietor, LLC, S-corp and the loan-out company – why artists incorporate, and when it's actually worth the cost.

Self-employment tax, 1099s, quarterly estimates and the write-offs that matter – the tax basics for self-employed talent and their managers.

The manager's duty to account – keeping the artist's money separate, sending clear statements, and why most disputes are really about this.

The growth playbook – how attention turns into a fanbase, across release strategy, short-form, playlists, ads and the audience you own.

The indie marketing toolkit – organic-first content, smart links, and the cheap tools that do the work before you spend a cent on ads.

Why frequent singles beat dropping an album cold – the waterfall release, pre-saves, release cadence, and the rollout timeline.

Editorial, algorithmic and user playlists, how to pitch through Spotify for Artists, what the algorithm rewards, and the paid-playlist trap.

Why songs break on TikTok first, how a sound goes viral, the seeding open secret, and why a viral moment is worth nothing you can't capture.

Meta and TikTok ads, the discovery-to-fan funnel, rough benchmarks, and the rule that you never pay to push something that isn't already working.

Rented vs owned audience, the fan funnel from listener to superfan, why the email list is the asset, and the 1,000-true-fans idea.