Building Your Artist Team: Who Are The Key Players And What How Do They Contribute?
If you are an independent artist and you don’t have a professional artist team, then you better start building one. There are many reasons why artists jump at the opportunity to sign a record label deal, one of them being the access to music industry professionals that can take a load of work off of your shoulders. However, if you have not come across that opportunity yet, or getting signed simply isn’t your goal, then you will need to put in the work to build your own artist team.
It can be a daunting task to some people, especially for the artist making music out of their DIY home studio, however if you are willing to put in the time, effort, and a bit of money, it can make a world of difference with the success of your music. Luckily, EAR wants to provide you with the basic outline of who the key players of a professional team are, and what they do to support your creative enterprise.
The Manager
The manager may just be one of the most important people that you could have on your artist team. To put it plainly, the manager oversees all of the other team members and can be seen as the leader or foundation of the team. They communicate with you to understand what your goals are for your music, and they work with everyone else to make it happen. Ideally, you want to find a manager that knows how to make professional connections or already has existing contacts with agencies, lawyers, distributors, etc. Your manager is also responsible for being educated on the industry and knowing the ins and outs of business. This is to ensure that you always get a good business deal, and that they serve as your biggest advocate. Therefore, their professional opinion and guidance should be taken seriously. The artist should be more involved in the creative aspect of their enterprise, so you should leave most of the business to the manager.
The Lawyer
The second important member of your team is the lawyer. No matter what profession you are in, it always pays to have good legal representation, and the same goes for musicians. Artist representation is incredibly important, especially when dealing with contracts and music copyrights. Lawyers can help you navigate the legal jargon of business contracts to ensure that you are getting the most out of negotiations and protect you from signing a bad deal. They can also help you deal with cases of people stealing your intellectual property and copyright infringement on your music.
The Publicist
What’s the point of running a creative enterprise when the main source of income is not even aware that your music exists? This is what publicists contribute to the team. A music publicist helps build your brand and your artist story to pitch to news outlets and publications with followings that align with your genre and musical tastes. Publicists also help you create promotional content such as photographs and videos, which are needed to market your music on social media, through the press, and even through merchandise and other items. These people are responsible for spreading the word about your music, so you make sure you are getting heard.
The Publisher
Music publishers collect royalties on your behalf every time your music is performed or synched. After collecting these royalties they pass them through performance rights organizations. Publishers also work to find creative opportunities for your music to generate royalties by pitching your song to tv and movie producers, and advertisements. Music publishing is a whole realm of the music industry that is very extensive on its own, which is why having a publisher on your team is key.
The Booking Agent
The booking agent is responsible for pitching and negotiating the details for live shows. They usually coordinate with venues, sponsors, and other necessary players to make tours, concerts, and live appearances happen for you to promote your music. A lot goes into planning these events, and your booking agent is responsible for being the expert on routing your tour, booking flights, developing the production, and ticketing.
The Music Distributor
The music distributor is the person that helps make your music available on DSP’s (digital service providers). These include Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes Store, Deezer, Tidal, and other music streaming services where your fans can access your music. Therefore, unless you want to spend your time uploading your tracks to dozens of stores, you should definitely hire this key player to your artist team.
Other potential players on your artist team that you may consider are an accountant, to help manage your finances; a social media consultant, to guide you through content creation, understanding your analytics, and developing engagement and outreach strategies; a music producer, for artists who need help creating the instrumentals for the songs; and so many more. However, these first six players are important if not essential to the success of your creative enterprise. Having these professionals support you and your music will help you take your career further and ensure that you hit less roadblocks on your way to success.
However, EAR understands the amount of time and effort dedicated to bringing these professionals together, therefore we offer services that bring them to you. If you are an independent musician looking to build an artist team, we highly recommend you check out our website to learn more about how we can help streamline the process. This way, you can focus more of your energy on the music, and we take care of the rest.
