I popped onto LinkedIn for my monthly check-in.
When I was exclusively a full-time touring Artist, I didn’t even have a LinkedIn account. No need. But once I started doing more work on the business side of our industry, it was clear having a LinkedIn account is crucial. If nothing more, for research.
If you’re not on LinkedIn, let me break it down for you briefly. People show up on the platform as their “work selves”. Their innie’s, if you will. Most of the posts, comments and reactions are congratulatory. For themselves, their colleagues, their companies. It’s all one big circle jerk. One dimensional. The conversation feels like how people talk at job interviews. Or corporate networking events.
One could argue that it’s actually a nice respite from the cesspool of what has become Facebook and Twitter – and increasingly Instagram and TikTok. LinkedIn, for as surface, sterile and soulless as it is, it’s damn polite. No one wants to ruffle any feathers because it’s a work environment. You don’t want to post anything that you wouldn’t want your co-workers, boss (or future boss) to see.
All that being said, some entrepreneurs outside of the corporate shackles have taken to the platform for their “hot takes” in their chosen industry. And like how an employee at a Fortune 500 company might exercise a small act of rebellion at the office by stealing excess breakroom snacks for their roommates, or anonymously donating to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign from their Midtown high rise, corner office, these people quietly Like these controversial posts from these LinkedIn “influencers” who have amassed large followings by bucking the etiquette, spewing out confident, vaguely controversial think pieces which are, at best, regurgitated thoughts from more successful minds and, at worse, ignorant and dangerous.
Here, we have a case of the latter.
A self-proclaimed Artist Manager, just posted that “20% management is a scam” and went on to say “we deserve 50%.”
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His post read (in full):
“20% management fee is a scam.
Not when your artist is doing stadiums. Not when the machine is already built.
But in the development phase? It’s basically unpaid labor with a fancy title.
I manage four Artists. And here’s what “management” really looks like:
– Pitching brand deals + syncs
– Booking and advancing tours
– Planning rollouts, creating timelines
– Setting up writing sessions, coordinating content
– Applying for grants, festivals, showcases
– Uploading music to distribution, tracking royalties, managing metadata
– Being the main point of contact for the label, publisher, and PR teams
– Handling every call, email, DM, and fire that comes up.
Now imagine doing all that — for 20% of $40K/year. That’s $8K a year. For full-time hours and full-stack responsibility.
That’s not management. That’s a bad startup equity deal — where I own nothing, control nothing, and still do everything.
Hot take, bear with me here.
But the truth is: management in the developing phase is a partnership, not a secretary.
We deserve 50% in the beginning — at least until the Artist is making high six figures.
We’re not just plugging into existing systems. We build the systems. We are the systems.
I love Artists. I fight for them. But the idea that I should frontload all the work, risk, and energy for years with no guaranteed return — and then get told a modest monthly fee is “not industry standard”? That’s delusional.
Artists deserve more. Managers deserve more too.
Let’s have THAT conversation.”
As predicted, most of the comments were other self-proclaimed entrepreneurs, founders and industry executives celebrating this idea. Some even go as far as to blast the “ungrateful Artists” who might push back on this thievery.
First off, if you have disdain for Artists, you should not be an Artist manager.
Being an Artist in this day and age is one of the most challenging career paths on planet earth. Full stop. Besides pouring out their heart and souls into their work to be criticized, ignored, judged and valued based on numerical metrics instead of merit, Artists have to simultaneously handle every other job of running a music career. Which includes everything this guy listed above, along with marketing, promotion, booking AND touring (no light feat), creative direction, social media management, brand management, business management (financials), fan management, registration, distribution, royalty collection, all while honing their craft, creating art that’s meant to shift culture and being “nice” and “easy to work with.”
It’s an impossible job. Not to mention that Artists spend years mastering their craft and funding the entire operation, investing tens of thousands into the project (or much, much more if they godforbid got a college degree), long before financial backers (possibly in the form of a label) or team members will ever get involved.
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Clearly this person should not be an Artist manager. He doesn’t understand the realities of the music business or an Artist’s financial (or emotional) realities.
Setting aside the fact that managers often represent multiple Artists, splitting their time, energy, and resources amongst all their clients and Artists have just this one career and one project, Artists are also expected to cover 100% of the expenses. Now and forever.
Many people in the comments compared the Artist’s career to a startup, with one commenter saying “The music business is the only industry that I know of where if the manager gets more than 20% commissions of a start up business, it’s considered predatory and not a founding partner. Crazy how that works.”
What all of these people either aren’t acknowledging or fail to understand is, startup founders invest in the business with their own money. Or attract investors which entitles them to equity.
Unless the manager wants to split all costs 50/50 with the Artist, demanding 50% of gross revenue is predatory and flat-out unethical. When all costs are actually accounted for, the manager would be taking home far and above what the artist take home pay is. That should never be the case.
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Normally I would just let this horribly misguided and ignorant “hot take” fade into oblivion, but with hundreds of Likes, comments and reposts, and a similar sentiment highlighted on The Manager’s Playbook YouTube channel, it must be course-corrected.
For the record, traditionally, most Artist managers make between 10-20% of gross revenue. Some make it of net revenue with clear transparency on what expenses entail. And actually some superstars have actually changed the model completely and just have their managers on payroll with a set salary and bonuses – like a traditional VP at a company.
Now, let me be clear, the job of an Artist manager is also insanely stressful, immensely complicated, tremendously frustrating much of the time, thankless, and crucially important.
The most important team member on an Artist’s team is, of course, the manager. And, yeah, there’s no equity. Managers don’t own publishing or masters or any IP in the project. And without sunset clauses, an Artist could fire them at a moment’s notice and the manager is out in the cold with very little to show for all of their hard work.
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Artist management should be a partnership. Both parties working equally hard for a shared vision. The best artist-manager relationships are collaborative and respectful. If either party is doing it just for the money, they’re in the wrong line of work. The music industry is a passion driven industry. Artists and managers are on the front lines and require the most amount of passion, grit and expertise.
And it’s true, it’s very hard for anyone to work for free no matter how much they believe in the project unless they have alternative revenue streams.
If an Artist is only making $40K/year, sure, it’s hard to justify doing the full work of a manager for only $8K a year. But it’s literally the job of the manager to find more revenue making opportunities. A great manager will level up a great Artist exponentially. And, while, sure, the manager might be working for very little early on, the idea is that it’s going to soon pay off handsomely if everyone does their job well.
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A more equitable deal if the Artist has a bankroll (like a day job), may be that the manager is paid a flat rate in the beginning. Like $1,500/month until the Artist’s revenue surpasses $10K/month, then it flips to a commission. But of course, most Artists can’t afford to put someone on payroll when their music isn’t making much money.
Maybe there needs to be a full paradigm shift. If managers want higher commissions, well, then, they’re going to need to participate in expenses. And if they really are prepared to get in on the ground floor when the project literally launches and they want equity like a full-time band member, well then, they’re going to need to act like a co-owner in the project – covering expenses, working on belief and sweat equity for a long time.
But I’ve yet to hear about any manager willing to put their money where their mouth is.
