Do I need a manager as an independent artist?

Not everyone needs a manager, but every time an independent artist with no team approaches a manager or an agent, it’s, how many social numbers have you got? Having a second person vouch for you, a manager with a career and a reputation behind them, and the compounding of a team, lifts artists.

The most important part is the overarching strategy, sitting down and having a plan, not only for the album but for your year ahead. That’s why I focus on the manager, because the manager only works for the artist, whereas the booking agent works with 30 other artists and has their own stake in touring, and a label’s stake is in the record, because that’s where their cut comes from.

Treat it like a business. The album is a product that’s going to generate revenue, you’ll do a tour alongside it and sell merch at that tour, so what do the six months ahead of it look like, and the six months after? What are your goals in touring, for the album, for your socials and your PR? If you’re touring well, your merch sales do well, your label does well and your brand grows.

That plan gives you criteria too. Is playing with this person conducive to reaching a new audience, or am I going to lose money? Is going to Sydney for this show conducive to playing in front of a new audience before I play a headline show there next?

A manager needs to be 100% in, and love what you’ve got coming up and what you’ve done so far. Unless you’re going to be a commercial Disney pop star, you want someone values-aligned who’ll represent you well, and a good manager is super realistic, invested in the result and invested in not creating a one-hit wonder.