How To Become A Music Manager

I’ve received a lot of emails from readers asking how to become a music manager. And as you can expect, that’s a big question to answer. However, in this post, I’m going to give you several tips that will help you become a successful music manager.

Requirements For Becoming A Music Manager:

Before I get into the individual tips for becoming a music manager, I want to give you some info on what’s needed to become a music manager in the music business. This way, you’ll know if you meet the requirements and can keep reading if you do.

So, if you’d like to be a music manager, I’ve got good news for you: there are no formal or legal requirements needed.

In addition to not needing any formal requirements, you don’t need any specialized skills either. Now don’t get me wrong, specialized skills could be useful, and a free college degree wouldn’t hurt. But they’re not needed.

As long as you can put in work, learn from your mistakes (yes, you’re going to make them), and keep moving forward – you can become a successful music manager.

The tips included on this page can help you speed things up and be more successful. But the only thing you absolutely need to manage music artists successfully is a work ethic.

So without further ado, let’s get into the tips.

1.) You Have To Be Good With People

A skill you’ll want to build to become a successful music manager, aside from being able to put in work and learn from your mistakes, is to be good with people.

As a music manager in the music business, you’re going to spend a ton of time networking and talking to music industry professionals. If you’re good with people, you will have no problem building relationships. If you’re not good with people, you’re going to have a rough time building relationships that will help speed up your artist’s success.

In addition to struggling with building relationships, you’ll also struggle with keeping a client. Not many rappers or music artists are going to want to work with a music manager who struggles to get things done. Struggling to get things done can be caused by not having the proper relationships in place.

I’m not going to teach you how to be good with people in this post. However, the simplest way to be good with people is to be a good human.

Be professional, respectful, and ultimately the friend you’d like to have.

2.) Good Relationship With Your Client

If you’re going to be managing music artists, you’re going to want to have a good relationship with them.

As a music manager, you’re going to be in situations where you’re going to need to make decisions for an artist. Sometimes the choice you make, while in the artist’s best interest, can cause disagreements and arguments. This is where having a good relationship with your client will really shine.

By having a good relationship with your client, they’ll be more likely to trust in you and your decision making. In addition to trusting you, they’ll also be more comfortable communicating their feelings and goals with you. And like most relationships, the more you talk things through with your clients – the better the relationship will be.

Overall

Becoming a music manager doesn’t require a college degree or a ton of skills to start. Yes, you’re going to need to be good with people and like the artist that you’re managing, but that’s about it.

There are other skills that can help make you better at managing an artist, but they can be learned by reading, while on the job, or from people that you meet.

So, if you’re interested in being a music manager – learn some of the business, figure out how you can add value to an artist’s career, and go for it.

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