Is Your Band’s Management Actually Managing Your Band?
Is your band’s management doing its job?
A couple weeks back, I wrote a piece titled Advice for Local Bands, which received an absolutely phenomenal response from our readers (thank you everyone, high 5’s all around). Due to the awesome feedback and my burning desire to improve the local music scene, I’ve decided to write a follow-up article on a section that I briefly touched upon – management.
Let’s get one thing straight – music is an art. There is no doubt about that. It takes countless hours of creative genius to mesh together and perfect a list of incredible songs for everyone to rock out to. Keeping that in mind, you have to ask yourself whether you want music to become your hobby as well as your career, because once it becomes your career you’re going to need to develop a business side to live off of it.
This is where management needs to step in. You’ll need someone who will let you focus on doing what you do best, which is creating music and gigging, whilst they manage the day-to-day stuff like organising gigs, printing flyers, contract reading, sending out CDs for reviewing, scheduling meetings and interviews, etc. Look, it’s not to say that you can’t also help out, but they need to be on top of things.
Sadly though, this isn’t the case without a lot of so-called management companies in South Africa. Most of them sit at their PCs all day, watching Youtube, trying to score free CDs from record companies, and forwarding emails – that, my friends, is not management! It’s called COGSBA – cling-on groupie scumbag by association.
To illustrate my point, I conducted a sneaky experiment last week. I emailed a few local management companies (pretty big ones actually) and told them about Music Review’s free gig guide, where they can list their bands’ forthcoming gigs for the month of September in the comment’s section. In case you haven’t already noticed, Music Review is one of the biggest music blogs in the country and ranks within the top 150 local websites – so we aren’t a Mickey Mouse operation (damn, we rule 
).
Now, go have a look at that article – not one single listing in the comment’s box. Ask yourself this, how will people come to your show if they don’t know you’re playing? Facebook and MySpace events shouldn’t be your only marketing avenues…
Listing gigs isn’t hard; it just takes a bit of time compiling a list. Many sites, not just Music Review, offer free gig listings. Think about it, even if just one extra person comes to your show because they saw it listed, it’s a win-win situation – you didn’t spend a cent on advertising, but got an extra fan. Remember, word-of-mouth is a powerful tool and over time, one fan becomes ten, which then becomes a hundred, and so forth. Maximise all your free publicity opportunities and ask your manager why he/she isn’t listing your gigs in all the available options?
Have you recorded an album? Do I know about it? If not, then it’s a massive FAIL! When your new album or EP is released, you should send it to all the available publications for coverage. It doesn’t even need to be a review (if you scared that you suck), just a news feature telling people what to expect from it. I always ask myself this question every day: Why do I know what’s being released in Helsinki and Quebec, but I don’t have a fucking clue what’s coming out in Johannesburg or Cape Town?
What I’ve learnt from dealing with international acts is that they understand the purpose of the media, due to guidance from their management. They don’t screw around when they’re giving you interviews – they get it to you on time and provide concise information. I don’t have to Google around for album covers if they send me the music in mp3 format, because the image file is attached, as well as all relevant press releases. If I get another blank disc in the mail from Hoërskool Rockers with no song names, or even an album title, I will spit at you…
The media is for free-flowing two-way communication. If you’ve already made it – congrats –you’ll be so inundated with press that you won’t have time to chat to everyone, which is okay. But if you’re still a small fry – which means that you have yet to play Hammerstein Ballroom with Metallica – it’s you and your manager’s responsibility to get your band known and to communicate with the media. Even if you don’t like me or my outspoken ways (sniff, sniff), chat to another music journalist then – just do something!
2010 is right around the corner, which means an enormous flow of international people into our country. While they’ll be here to watch the soccer, they’ll also need to be entertained on the odd nights which games aren’t played. This means, you have 9 months to get your baby up-and-running (haha, I like that metaphor) and impress the international market which is a huge, huge, HUGE opportunity for your band.
Guys and girls, the only reason I write these things is to help you and the industry to elevate to where it belongs. There is no agenda or management services offered; it’s just something to aid you and your band. Let’s make local lekker again…
- Sergio Pereira
sergio@musicreview.co.za
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No one reads gig guides anymore dude. That’s why there are no comments
People support bands they like – and usually find out from them directly (band website or facebook/myspace)
@bandfan I get what you’re saying.
But what if somebody doesn’t use Facebook or Myspace? Then what? How do they get information? Facebook or Myspace are also not very good measures of how many ‘fans’ a band really has. Asphalt Valentine have thousands of fans on Myspace and only a few hundred on FB – something obviously doesn’t add up. Many people, like Trent Reznor, choose to stay off social networks completely.
I also know that research has shown a drop in people joining fan pages and groups, due to the constant spamming. They don’t even see half the information that is sent out.
A major lesson I learnt in my Media Studies degree is that if you want people to find out news and information, you need to make it available in as many platforms as possible – hence the reason for numerous news agencies.
Trust me, it makes no difference to me if bands list their gigs on Music Review or not – it’s really just another available resource that reaches a more targeted audience.
I have to disagree with you about no one reading gig guides – because the September gig guide is actually one of the top 10 or 15 most read pages this month, so people are reading it
You also mentioned that people support bands they like and find out from them directly – true. But don’t bands want to maximise every single opportunity? I’m sure there are people that didn’t know who Glaskas were until they read an interview somewhere and then researched the band.
The media is the hub of communication. It’s here to aid and connect fans and bands. The sole reason I write these pieces is to help improve the communication in the SA music industry. I don’t expect a ‘thank you’ or Pulitzer for it – I just want the industry to move forward and capitalise on every single opportunity
Bandfan, you raise an interesting point, and I agree with both of you.
Firstly, I think you are correct in advocating great importance to Facebook and Myspace. Those social media websites in particular have played quite a large role in filling the divide between bands and fans.
As you rightfully point out, many a person will solely rely on Facebook and Myspace for gig updates and band information, however that being said…
I think Sergio is spot on. Bands and management really should try to maximize outreach and should utilise a wide variety of online resources.
At the end of the day, I guess the proof is in the statistic report. Sizeable amounts of traffic which Music Review gets from search engines relate to the following key words: ‘Concerts’, ‘gigs’, ‘events’. Then of course, there are searches which use those key words with specific reference to date and bands.
So I guess what i’m trying to say, is that although Facebook and Myspace are great avenues, they certainly are not the be all and end all. There is still sufficient demand for gig guides and event lists, as is evident in statistic reports; and as such, bands and management should make use of alternative online avenues to complement their Facebook and Myspace campaigns.
Yes, Sergio is correct. When I was playing in the near big time with folks from the Faith Hill Band and others we were constantly being petitioned from “Managers” who made all sorts of of grandiose promises. We knew of several other very large groups who were touring in our circuits that used managers from time to time. Never, and I do mean NEVER, did we hear of a manager that was anywhere near worth the money that they demanded.
Now, the booking agents were doing a really good job, although they did charge too much in most opinions. But, booking agents activity can easily be monitored. If an agent isn’t booking you, then you will know it immediately. If a manager is sitting on his butt reading Mad Magazine, you might not know about it for six months. Also, booking agents operate on a percentage of each gig. How many “Publicists”
or “Managers” are willing to work on strictly commission??
So, at the end of the day, all the bands touring in our circuit simply managed themselves. Many had their wives manage the band. Now you have to remember, these are big bands that had either moved down from the bigs temporarily or were moving into the bigs.–we called it the Triple A circuit. These are very serious, very experienced, very talented people, many who were famous. No amateurs or weekend warriors. And we all managed ourselves.
So, we at Brandt Morain manage ourselves.
So, you would think that we naturally use Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube, right?? WRONG!! Does anybody ever read the EULA for these organizations?? They all take your sub-license rights as they profess to guarantee your copyright ownership. What is the point of owning your copyrights if you just signed your licensing authority over to somebody who can re-license your work, for free, to anyone in the world?? Also, these organizations reserve the right to change any terms of the agreement with little or no advanced warning. And you agree to be bound by these changes.
So, once day, when Myspace is about to go bankrupt, you wake up and find that they slipped in a clause three weeks ago claiming ownership of all copyrights on all materials submitted to their site.
It’s a ruthless world out there folks. If a “Manager” approaches you then offer him a commission only option. Watch what happens. If you sign up for a “Free” marketing tool offering you worldwide access to the industry and fans, you had better read the EULA very carefully.
And everyone thinks that it is the record labels who are sharks. Hah!!
Be careful everyone,
Sincerely,
Jared Brandt
Brandt Morain Studios, LLC
@Jared Thank you so much for that insightful comment. I think there is so much wisdom that bands/managers/labels can get from people who’ve been there and done it all.
Thanks Sergio, for your wonderful comments.
The truth is I have not done it all, at least not yet. If “Brandt Morain Volume One” becomes a Gold or Platinum record then maybe I can claim that right. :^)
In the meantime, it is a sheer pleasure to use my background to help other folks from making serious mistakes.
Be careful everyone! If you aren’t careful this will be a very nasty business for you. If you keep your head on straight this can be a very generous business for you.
Sincerely,
Jared
@Jared Sure, I get what you’re saying. But as you said it’s sharing your background
Wishing Brandt Morain much success!
A good manager can make a ‘mediocre band’ go far.
And a bad manager can take a ‘great band’ nowhere.
Being a manager is more than internet marketing, its about sustained growth and constant pushing. The Internet amounts to something like .5% of band growth. Being on the road and doing tours amounts for 99.5%.
I agree that pushing bands anywhere you can, matters, but a good manager, knows where to spend their efforts for maximum rewards.
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