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Does your band have a Manager?

MatticusMania

MatticusMania

LANA! HE REMEMBERS ME!
Sep 10, 2008
9,565
152
42
Pomona, SoCal
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#1
Im not talking about your bandleader as a manager, but more like a person hired to perform managerial duties for your band?
Im curious to know any details you might be able to share such as what duties your manager performs? How much they are paid? Our band is currently considering finding someone to manage us and I wanted to see how others have approached the concept. Thanks.
 
#3
Yes and no. We have a leader of our band who does our finances and booking. Our band works as a LLC and the one person is "in charge". We do not have outside management. I think it would be a little better with outside management, but this has worked for us for 13 years so far. By the way, management usually gets 10% off the top. That is what we pay our "leader/Manager"
 
#4
no. but a serious manager makes 10-15% of whatever you make. they should be booking your gigs and getting you work, doing the stuff that we hate. negotiating the most money for your work, making sure you get paid, making sure the event goes as agreed. dealing with the business. that said, keep a close eye on your manager. make sure you know what you're getting paid so he doesn't take more than his cut. in other words, you pay him, don't let him collect and pay you.

each manager/client relationship is different, but a good manager does whatever needs to be done to make you as much $ as possible, because the more you make, the more he makes. anything other than that is suspect.
 
#5
Yes. Our lead lead guitard/BL's mom wanted something to do. So we gave her a long venue list and the band supplied her with press packs & demo vids.

She's done pretty well getting us small bar bookings, but it's been a little dry on new venues lately. We've got to make some changes to our set lists to get into the next level of bars/clubs.
 
#7
Our agent acts as our manager as well, he takes care of bookings, posters, flyers and negotiating some non bar/club gigs such as weddings and corporate stuff.

He does a great job and only takes 10%, we pay for whatever extra is involved such as printing and copies ect...
 
#8
my experience with my most recent band is that an outside manager, i.e. a stranger, is not the right move. We hired a manager and even paid her an upfront fee. She's called us a few times with some gig offers that were for less money than what we usually make from even little bars. Then she seemed annoyed that we wouldn't accept those offers!
A few months after that a friend and fan of the band offered to start talking us up to the restaurants and bars he goes to. We agreed, he had business cards printed up, we give him fifty bucks or so from the gigs that he books for us. He's been asking places to up our pay since we added a fifth person and had some exposure on the #1 morning radio show in town.:hyper:
He's not a PR guy and never managed a band before. His explanation for why he does all this? "I come to every one of your shows anyways."
 
#9
Many years ago I was in an original band that was approached by a woman that wanted to manage us. We had a cd but we were really just a bar band. She took 10% and would book gigs and do all the negotiations with the club and booking managers. She was super aggressive and it made us look like arrogant jerks with her demands. She also was a little bit on the heavy side and wore clothes that didn't even begin to cover her- which led to our guitarist nick naming her "rock Jabba". Harsh, I know. Unless you are a touring act, I wouldn't recommend it. you really have to trust the person's judgement.
 
#11
MatticusMania said:
Im not talking about your bandleader as a manager, but more like a person hired to perform managerial duties for your band?
Im curious to know any details you might be able to share such as what duties your manager performs? How much they are paid? Our band is currently considering finding someone to manage us and I wanted to see how others have approached the concept. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Matt,

You want to make sure they have a proven track record they can get bookings your band can't on it's own.

Here's a test, ask what venues they have strong relationships with and when was the last gig they booked for a band for over $500.00

Blue
 
#13
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#15
Short answer no, and never have had one in any band I was in.

But I make a distinction between a booking agent and a manager. Many of the responders above seem to be talking more about booking agents (or people functioning like one) rather than a true manager. True managers are so much more than people who find you gigs. They should be people who know the industry, and who know how to make a band in your genre succeed, down to things like song creation, picking a studio/engineer, the look of the band, the stage presentation of the band, the promotion of the band, etc. etc.
 
#16
bunkaroo said:
I hear the best managers are typically related to and/or romantically involved with one/several of the band members.
Click to expand...

Since you pointed it out, we have both with the one manager. Related to one member and as for the romantically involved part....well....I'll leave that for a future "band drama" thread should I leave this band. Let's just say it was definitely a twist nine of us saw coming lol!!
 
#17
Nope, haven't been in a band that was big enough to need one. Now I happen to know a woman who is a band manager and she's great and were we ever to need one I'd hope that she would be willing to take us on.
 
#18
Having a manager can make it appear you are more professional which can't hurt. We have a manager listed on our contacts and a management firm listed. He is a friend to the band and does all his work for us for free. He also does a lot of our graphic design, web design, and tons of other stuff. he does booking work, he intimidates crappy venue owners that try to screw us (he's six foot seven 350lbs). he's great.
 
#20
father of fires said:
Man...I'd love one. 5 grown ass adults can't even remember when practice is and I'm not about to babysit anyone. I need someone to handle practice schedules, rent, bookings, merch, etc.
Click to expand...

I played with a local singer-songwriter for awhile. He cuts CD's, has merch, and does regional tours from time to time. I don't think he makes much money at it, probably re-invests it in his production costs as soon as he does make some, but he hired a manager for all the promotional and logistical stuff, which is pretty substantial even at the local/regional level. He also uses a booking agent, seperate entities with seperate responsibilities.
 

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