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The Unpredictable World of Artist Management.

Andy Robertson

Entering the world of entertainment and artist management is a tough challenge and widely understood to be one of the most brutal occupations to consider. For event organisers and artist liaison managers the artist's manager can be unreliable and unpredictable but they only see the surface of what is a tough job.   


The artist manager is always on the look out for new talent with the ultimate aim of managing a financially successful artist. However, given the low success rate of artists (musicians, bands and singer songwriters for example) the artist manager must be used to dealing with failure on a regular basis and only occasional success. Once they secure a financially successful artist, they will be determined to everything in their power to keep that artist satisfied, happy and in the limelight. They will be pandering to the artists every whim and desire and this often results in quite unpredictable behaviour when dealing with event organisers and artist liaison managers.

Artists managers often spend much time and effort in promoting and marketing their artist to get them the best recording deals, media coverage and live gigs. They are by their nature excellent negotiators and networkers constantly on the look out for key contacts and opportunities. With so much rejection in this industry it's no wonder the artist manager can often come across as having a pushy and abrasive personality. In this competitive industry this is understandable and any artist will be happy with this approach knowing that their manager has their best interests at heart. 

For music festival organisers with full time artist liaison mangers, they could be dealing with several hundred artist mangers. One of the biggest gripes is finalising the artist advance, most will be late, or incomplete and need to be constantly followed up. To some extent the artist manger is protecting the artist from such trivial matters particularly if the artist cannot decide on their availability, set duration, fee or riders for example. Although this behaviour doesn't help with the event planning and logistics spare a thought for the artist manager whose sole focus is to satisfy their artist and deliver what they want.

Managing the unpredictable behaviour of the artist manager falls on the artist liaison mangers who in turn are under pressure from producers and stage managers to finalise schedules, sound checks and hospitality requirements. For music festival organisers using a festival specific software platform can help manage the whole process. 

Using an events software management platform like
FestivalPro music festival organisers get all the functionality they need to plan every aspect of artist management. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The FestivalPro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for artists including advancing, scheduling and built-in reminders for artist liaison mangers to send to artists and their managers. The system also includes modules for managing vendors, contractors, volunteers, guestlists and contactless ordering plus a complete ticketing solution. All documents and data is stored in one centrally controlled database with secure access allocated to specific roles.

Andy Robertson
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