State Of The Music: Lumidy's Blog presents the top six (6) reasons why J-town music industry is not moving
By Unknown - Tuesday, August 21, 2018
J-TOWN is blessed with abundant talent, a pool so large that walking down the streets of Jos, you are more likely to see an artiste than a clergyman.
But every day, many of these acts quit the music industry, choosing to drop the mic, let their dream vanish, and chase a life of normality, while many others still remain on course, struggling to become stars.
LB Music presents the top Six reasons why many artistes quit music.
1. Money
The music industry in Jos is an extremely costly venture, with little or no guarantee for returns. Consider the amount of money which needs to poured into a single act in order for it to achieve notable attention and success. Most musicians are poor souls trying to earn a living from their talent. The costs of reputable legal representation, CD pressing, professional studio services and equipment, to name just a few, are high enough to deter wealthy individuals from investing. More and more musicians are still striving, hoping that they will be able to snap a deal at some point, which would relieve the financial headache and burden. So they keep going and going until the coffers are worn thin. But still, for many, when is that break ever going to come?
Commitments
Sometimes artistes become distracted by off-the-mic commitments, hence they eventually lose focus on the music and quit. This commitment comes in many forms, from love, to a new hobby, to religion, they come in thick and fast, making the artiste doubt the importance of music in his life, and walking away from it all.
3. Team splits
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| 911 Army - Promphizy & INZ (Freezlinks) |
This happens to everyone, as disagreements are a fact of life. However if you are an artiste hoping to rise to the top, constant disagreements and team changes do not bode well for your musical career.
Some artistes lose key members of their team, and don't necessarily quit, but they begin to seek new members. It's much harder to pick up the pieces though if the team already have commitments to fulfil, and agreements to honor. Although many people try to work out their problems, sadly though, getting a group of people to concur with each other’s opinions, future musical direction, (plus all the hundreds of other little decisions and details that require unanimous agreement) is more than impossible for a good length of time.
4. Pressure
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| Legendary Mixer |
Pressure is universal, popping up in every industry or vocation. If pressure was nonexistent, we would take a lot longer to move ourselves out of the comfort zone and into the quest for growth. Musicians are under a lot of pressure. These include pressures of getting noticed, pressures of ‘blowing’, becoming financially successful, and the pressure to be able to pay bills.
Many artistes are unable to deal with all of these pressures, and so they quit. How many acts have you seen leave the mic for an office position? Countless.
5. Competition
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| Crinerry, Dizzo, Twitch Diva Syxxty |
We humans are all wired to compete. It’s what makes the world balanced and creates the best innovations on earth. Musicians in Jos face this competition and it is set to keep getting bigger.
The competition we face today is more remarkable due to the visibility of artists online trying to make their way to the top. If we were to go back to the 90’s and 80’s, we wouldn't know who or where half of these aspiring individuals were. Or more importantly, what they were releasing.
With this fierce competition, many acts are blown to the side, and the pressure that comes with competing can be overwhelming. This has made many artistes decide not to kill themselves, and go chase glory in some other field.
6. ARTISTE HYPING THEMSELVES
Artiste begging for downloads falls under Lack of management. As an artiste your label or management should shoulder the responsibility of your publicity, events booking e.t.c.
LACK OF MANAGEMENT
Understanding the Music Industry is a series that outlines the framework of the business, explaining the roles of the industry professionals, what their jobs entail, when it’s important to involve them and deal specifics that you want to be aware of. Artist managers, booking agents, music publishers, labels, A&Rs and others – we’ll treat them all.
Let’s rewind about four years, to my first days in the music business.
I had teamed up with my best friends, who had started producing. I would be their manager.
We were eager and ambitious.
And absolutely clueless.
I had no idea what an artist manager really did. Nor did they know what goes into being professional artists.
Our enthusiasm and drive would make up for that lack of knowledge. We would wing it, learn on the fly, failing and learning from our mistakes.
Not a bad approach at all – but perhaps more admirable for initiative and grit, than for efficiency.
What we lacked was insight into the framework that underlies the modern music industry. An understanding of the interconnected gears and sprockets – the music industry professionals – that drive the careers of successful artists.
Artist manager, booking agent, music publisher, label A&R, radio promoter, PR agent, event promoter… we didn’t really know what all these jobs entailed, what work they did or at what stage they became relevant to an artist’s career.
I suspect that if we did have that knowledge, this initial four-year journey would have brought us farther than we are now.
What does an artist manager do?
An artist manager’s job is multifaceted and broad in scope. In essence, their primary duty is this – to create opportunities. It’s their task to devise and execute a strategy. To facilitate the artist to excel artistically, in some cases even streamlining their personal lives.
To connect them to the right people. To create a state of order from which creative work is easily done. To bring the right people on to the artist’s team, for the right reasons, at the right time. To make the decisions that the artist doesn’t want to make. To give the bad news that the artist doesn’t want to spread.
A good manager has a plan for an artist and will do everything in his power to make that a reality.
That entails coordinating and streamlining the efforts of everyone working for an artist; agents, publishers, label A&Rs, PR people and others. It also entails making countless of sales calls and pitches, negotiating contracts and relentlessly pursuing opportunities – even when the odds are slim.
Managers need to truly believe in their artists. It’s necessary for the job. To endlessly sell and receive NO for an answer most of the time – and to get right back up and keep on selling. To be an objective sounding board for the artist, being able to say so when a product or track isn’t good enough. To be critical to the outside world – filtering out the nonsense and telling people how it is. With tact. And then still maintaining that belief in the inevitable success that’s coming in the future.
Artist-manager relationships become very personal over time. I think it’s a necessity. The best managers are involved artistically, helping curate and develop the musical content and branding. These things concern creative ideas, which are very personal in nature. For artists to receive and appreciate feedback from a manager, it’s necessary to establish trust but also to have respect for each others’ authority on certain subjects. I can be critical about certain things to my artists, because they respect my opinions on those matters.
Types of managers
Managers that start working with an artist in the early stages of their career are often business-oriented friends or want-to-be industry professionals, that take on the job because of a belief in the music. In the early stages the manager is often also the booking agent. These are the individual managers.
In the higher tiers, managers work for agencies and sometimes for record labels. They tend to have bigger networks and more resources, but are more selective about the artists they work with. As a rule of thumb, you should assume that the higher up the chain you go, the more people will preselect for artists that are already making waves independently. Also, managers at big agencies tend to have more artists on their roster, resulting in less time spent on each individual act.
For the really rich musicians, management can be split up into music management and business management. The prior is all that we have just discussed, whereas business management takes a more financial spin. These managers concern themselves with asset and capital management, do investments for their clients, find tax and administrative loopholes.
There is something to be said for both the stand-alone managers as for the agencies. My experience has taught me to never work with people where the artist is not among their top priorities. Be watchful of the people that sign artists like notches, to hedge their risk in the hope that one of them will break through. Our best results came from working with people that were enthused to work with our acts, “champions” we like to call them.
“Champions” show initiative out of their own accord because they truly believe in the project as much as you do and always strive to push the project forward – even if they have a lesser track record or aren’t at big agencies. It’s not all in the name.
Whether it’s a mid-level A&R person at a label, a sub-agent at a major agency, you always want to have battle going to bat for your team with as much enthusiasm as you do.
Find yourself a “champion” wherever you go.
The deal
The deals on which managers sign acts vary widely.
Beginning managers often work with acts on the basis of a gentleman’s agreement. This is a procedure that sometimes extends to the honeymoon period of more serious artist – manager relationships. This is the trial period before an actual contract commences.
Serious managers sign their artists, working for a commission ranging between 10-20% off gross revenue. The industry norm is 15%, however the rate should be decided upon based on the manager’s (future) contribution to an artist’s career. Most managers will take this cut off gross revenue, meaning all revenues without any deduction of costs. I’m against that – a fair manager should only make money when the artist does.
The term for these agreements range from 1-3 years, the latter being most common. I view management as a long-term investment so will always try to sign artists for a three-year term. You’re building something together after all.
Managers also hedge against the risk of creating success for an artist and then being abandoned, by so-called Sunset clauses. These entitle the manager to a certain percentage commission, diminishing per year, for a period after the agreement with an act ends. For example, if I sign an act for three years on a 20% commission, and we end our collaboration after that third year, I’d ask for a 15% commission in the fourth year, a 10% commission in the fifth, and so on until we end at 0%.
Established artists have more clout in new contract negotiations, as the managers have contributed less to their development. The bigger the act, the less dependent they are on a manager’s involvement for success. And in those cases the manager also stands to gain esteem by working with the act.
Booking Agents
The booking agent’s job is to facilitate live performances, in the broadest sense.
This entails securing and arranging performances, negotiating deals, arranging proper technical set-ups for shows, and in many cases also securing hospitality (hotels, dinners), logistics (travel, flights) and promotional efforts.
They receive requests for performances and pitch the artists. This leads to offers which they negotiate on until a deal is closed. During this period, an ‘option’ is held on the date and time-slot for that promoter. Good agents make sure that contracts are signed long before the actual show and collect deposits (read: payments) beforehand.
I am in favor of having 100% of the deposits collected before a show, as the last thing you want to do is to chase a promoter for money after you’ve already performed – that removes all your leverage. It’s the agent’s job to make sure this is agreed upon per contract and that the cash actually comes in in time. Also, they communicate the technical requirements for the show with a document called a ‘technical rider’ and include hospitality and logistics in the contracts they sign with the promoter.
Agents represent artists for specific regions. This is done as it is unreasonable to expect that an agent in one market (read location) will have the same network and clout as in another. The major territories are split up as Europe (EU), North America (NA), South America (SA), Asia, and Australia + New Zealand (ANZ).
Traditionally, Asia was combined with ANZ but with the growth of dance music in Asia in the last several years Asia, and even China, has now grown to the point where booking agencies have popped up that specialize within each territory. I predict that it won’t be long till a country as big as India, for example, starts to require a dedicated agent for itself.
Even in Europe, some markets are vastly different. France is a good example of a country where some artists may consider finding a specific agent just for France. It all depends on what set up you feel most comfortable with.
Big acts often have one head-agent, who coordinates all the sub-agents in the different territories. For example, for our artist San Holo, our head agents is Nathalie from ANNA Agency. Together, we coordinate with our sub-agents in Australia and North America on all booking strategy and confirming individual shows.
Here at Heroic, we’ve replicated the same setup we have for San Holo with our other two touring-level acts WRLD and DROELOE. Both acts have Nathalie and ANNA Agency as our lead agents in Europe and Rest of World (ROW) with Jon and Steve from Circle Talent Agency in North America as our North American agents.
There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ to whether you should diversify different acts across different agencies.
The way we see it is our current workflow is strong, particularly for San Holo, and we enjoy working with the agents we’re currently working with so why not take that workflow and translate it through to our other acts?
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