What's the difference between a manager, a booking agent, a label and a publisher?
The manager runs the whole career and takes 15–20% of everything. The booking agent sells live shows and takes around 10% of live fees. The label funds and distributes recordings and takes a share of recording income. The publisher administers and exploits the songwriting copyright and takes a share of publishing. One person is strategy; the other three are functions.
The manager
Hired by the artist, paid by the artist, accountable to the artist. Commission is typically 15–20% of gross across most income streams. The manager hires and fires the other three, and is the only one of them whose job is the artist's career as a whole rather than one revenue line.
Crucially, the manager funds nothing. This is why management is a bet rather than an investment, and why managers can be so selective.
The booking agent
Sells the artist's live performances to promoters and festivals, and routes tours. Standard commission is around 10% of live fees. In some US states, booking employment for performers is a licensed activity, which is one reason the roles stay separate.
The agent works the phones; the manager decides the strategy. An agent will bring you a routing; whether that routing makes sense for where the artist is in a campaign is the manager's call.
The label
Funds recording and marketing, distributes the record, and takes a share of recording income — often the majority of it, in exchange for the money and infrastructure supplied up front. Advances are recoupable: they're paid back out of the artist's share before the artist sees anything further.
Master ownership is the fight worth understanding. Paul McGuinness got U2 ownership of their masters as they broke, which the Beatles never had. Most artists historically did not, and the modern independent and distribution landscape exists largely because that ceased to be the only option.
The publisher
Deals with the song, not the recording — a separate copyright with separate money. Publishers administer and exploit compositions: collecting royalties worldwide, pitching for sync, and setting up co-writes. They take a share of publishing income and often pay an advance against it.
Two different copyrights in every track is the single most common thing new artists don't know, and the reason 'I got a record deal' and 'I got a publishing deal' are unrelated sentences.
The one-line version
Manager: everything, 15–20% of gross. Agent: live shows, ~10% of live. Label: recordings, a share of recording income, usually funds it. Publisher: songs, a share of publishing, often funds it. Only the manager is paid to care about all four at once.
Common follow-ups
- Can the same person be my manager and my booking agent?
- At a very small scale it happens, and early on your manager will book shows because nobody else will. It becomes a problem as you grow: booking is licensed in some US states, and combining the roles removes the check of having two people with different incentives looking at the same offer.
- Do I need a label if I have a manager?
- No. A manager's job includes deciding whether a label is worth what it costs. With distribution widely available and marketing increasingly driven by short-form video rather than radio, plenty of well-managed artists stay independent — which usually means keeping their masters.
- What's the difference between a master and a publishing copyright?
- The master is the recording — the specific performance captured. Publishing is the song itself: melody and lyrics. They are separate copyrights, often owned by different parties, and they generate separate money. A sync licence usually needs permission from both.