Who made you the manager?

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Who made you the manager?

In today's do it yourself music business, bands are often managed themselves. The situation sometimes referred to as a member-managed band. One challenge with member-management is finding someone in the band willing and capable to handle the tasks. That is to book the shows, collect and distribute money, arrange recording sessions, organize tours, and perhaps even file taxes. The member-manager carries a double load, performing and managing. And it's usually not compensated for management duties.

If you're the member-manager in your band, this course is for you. Here are a few suggestions before getting started. Have only one member-manager because it's a general rule having several persons in the band handling business doesn't work. Provide incentives for member-management such as offering 5% or 10% of show income for booking gigs. And have regular meetings to discuss current band business.

Otherwise, band members may feel out of the loop. Finally, if member-management is not working out, look into hiring someone to manage the business. It may be better to pay someone 15% to 20% of band income than have your band break up over member-management problems. This course is divided into two parts. The first part addresses internal band business issues, matters that are decided by and relate to individual band members. For example, ownership of songs, band name, and equipment.

The second part of the course explains essential tasks that a band business must perform. For example, entering into contracts, managing taxes and finances, budgeting, and preserving copyrights. In order to deal with the first part, you'll need to discuss issues that sometimes create friction within a band. You may feel that now is not the right time to bring up some of these issues and you could be right. Your band could be doing fine, so why stir things up with legal and tax discussions? Review the course materials and consider whether you should put off these issues for another day.

However, if your band is on an upward arc, for example, there's a buzz going on locally, income is increasing, and your videos are approaching viral, now might actually be the best time to make these internal band decisions. The more issues you can resolve now, the better prepared you'll be when deals arrive.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/music-law-managing-a-band-s-business/who-made-you-the-manager