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As an artist, and this can follow into the world of business, you need to run your own career. No one else is going to run your career like you will, why? Simple, it is your career.

As an artist, and this can follow into the world of business, you need to run your own career. No one else is going to run your career like you will, why? Simple, it is your career.

I have many artists on my agency roster and I also manage some artists, the artists who seem to be more successful is not because of me. They are successful because of the work they put in and continue to put in what it takes to stay on top of their game in this industry. An agency or a manager’s job is to take everything from that artist and bring them to the next level.

One artist of mine in particular runs their career like how an agent or manager would work his career. This creates a moving forward working ethic and it is because of this artist why this post is being written. Everyone needs to be more like this artist.

So this is what he does…

He lives on Microsoft Outlook. If you do not have Outlook you can use any email client that integrates with a note taking function. A calendar is a must, also the ability to quickly search the content in one place is also very important.

For every show he notes the date, promoter info, venue name, event promo link, offer, in addition to key points in emails that he can reference in the future. Before I took this artist onto the agency he demanded we spent an hour on the phone twice a month to align our notes and things, this is when I knew he was all about business and this wasn’t just some thing he enjoyed doing. On those talks we go over all confirmed dates, make sure all the figures are correct and go over if all terms of the shows are satisfactory. Then after we discuss other topics such as new offers or others we are working on we dive into historic shows. “I haven’t played in Austin or Dallas in 6 months let’s reach out to them…I played for x and hotel was also covered”. “We ate at this great spot so I would like to go there again”. If this wasn’t brought up it isn’t like I wouldn’t have hit Austin or Dallas up but what it did was give me both motivation and organization to speed up the process to give all the facts to the buyer so we can confirm the show in faster since we cut out the offer process and presented something that the promoter was ok with 6 months ago.

The point really is to run your music career like a business would be ran. Be organized and taking responsibility. I never have him ask me “Where are my bookings?” he is focused and one step ahead of himself and that will never result in failure.

Ok got it, so if I am on point then why do I need a manager or agent? At this point you are a touring artist, at least at a regional level so it is time to go next level, and that is the job or an agent or a manager. However be sure the agent or manager is as organized as you are or else you will be fighting through systematics and not getting work done.

Don’t be this artist:

There was an act that I did somewhat look up to and I actually brought them onto the agency thinking, ok great I can utilize their contacts and also broaden their reach into other areas so this will be a win/win. I asked them to send me their promoter list and the response was “That is why I always had an agent, for them to deal with that stuff” FLOORED…are you kidding me, you toured for over 10 years and not one promoter contact that can be reached — this is the polar opposite of the former if you couldn’t tell by now.

So take responsibility and run your own career but use another person who matches your workflow and organization methods and you will see how your business will increase and it will promise your longevity.