What makes a good music manager?
A good manager tells you things you don't want to hear, has a specific plan rather than enthusiasm, is reachable when it's inconvenient, and is willing to destroy something that currently works if the next version is better. Track record matters less than judgement, because every artist's situation is different and enthusiasm is free.
They'll tell you to burn a working thing
In the mid-1980s Robert Plant had a functioning solo career and a working band. Bill Curbishley told him to disband it and start over with new musicians and new collaborators. That is advice against the manager's own short-term financial interest — he was commissioning the thing he asked his client to destroy — and it is why Plant re-emerged rather than gently declining.
A manager whose advice never costs them anything is a manager optimising for this quarter. The test isn't whether they're nice. It's whether they've ever told you no about something profitable.
They have a plan, not a vibe
Ask what they'd do in your first ninety days. A good answer is specific and slightly boring: these three conversations, this release timed here, this data I want to see, this thing we stop doing. A bad answer is about belief, energy and taking it to the next level.
Ask what they think is wrong with what you're currently doing. Anyone who says nothing either hasn't looked or won't tell you.
They protect the thing that made you work
The default move when an artist gets traction is to professionalise the music — bigger writers, known producers, better rooms. Danny Rukasin and Brandon Goodman spent a decade doing the opposite with Billie Eilish, scaling the team around a bedroom operation and leaving the operation alone, because the bedroom was the product.
A manager who wants to fix what's working before they understand why it works is dangerous in proportion to how competent they are.
They're accountable and reachable
One person's name on the outcome. At a large firm, find out who that is, not which company it is — the roster on the website may have nothing to do with who returns your calls.
Ask for a current client's number and actually ring them. Ask whether the manager answers at 11pm on a Sunday when something has gone wrong, because eventually something will.
They understand where the money is now
The great managers all repriced something underpriced: Grant the concert gate, McGuinness master ownership, Herbert the touring supply chain. A manager who only knows how the business worked five years ago is managing a market that has moved.
Today the underpriced asset is short-form attention, and specifically the fact that most editors driving reach on TikTok are working without published rates or verified payouts. A manager who can explain how your song gets into circulation at that layer — and what it costs — is describing the current market rather than a remembered one.
Common follow-ups
- What questions should I ask a potential music manager?
- What would you do in my first ninety days? What's wrong with what I'm doing now? Who else do you manage, and can I call one of them? How exactly do you get paid? What happens if this doesn't work — what does the exit look like? Vague answers to any of these are the answer.
- Does a music manager need industry experience?
- It helps, but it isn't required and never has been. Chris Zarou was rejected by every music internship he applied to and built Logic into an arena act. Herbie Herbert was a roadie. What's required is judgement, relentlessness and being trusted by one artist enough to start.
- Should I pick a big management company or an independent manager?
- Pick the person, then check the company. A big firm brings relationships and infrastructure but you may be a small account inside it; an independent gives you their full attention but has fewer doors. Either works — what kills artists is being a low priority somewhere impressive.