What does a Music Manager do?
Music managers bring together and coordinate the necessary people and projects to meet the goals of their clients, often artists or bands. Music managers ensure deadlines are met and that projects run smoothly. Working in constant communication with publicity agents, event promoters, and talent agencies, music managers possess fluency with the music industry, people skills, and organizational skills.
Music managers often start as artists, audio engineers, assistants, or promoters. Some work as personal managers, who are most involved in the actual day-to-day, career strategizing, plan formulation, and execution with the artist. Others work as road music managers and handle all the logistics of a tour while an artist is on the road. Some managers mainly handle the artist’s books, including income and expenses making payments on the artist’s behalf and taking care of taxes, investments, and other finances; Music managers handle their clients’ financial and legal business in addition to getting them recording contracts and tracking live performances. Music managers need a four-year degree with a concentration on the music industry, business administration, contract law, and marketing
- Develop ideas to maximize exposure for each artist through performances, special appearances, promotions, grassroots marketing, and online tools.
- Provide guidance and manage the department coordinators and assistants.
- Work with various departments in the company to ideate, execute, and maximize the visibility and awareness of all projects.
- Responsible for finding creative and innovative ways to engage with your artists, other departments in the company, partners, fans, etc. on all aspects of your project.
- Manage all aspects of artists' product development (physical and digital) from concept to completion and implement comprehensive marketing initiatives for each project with a focus on global audience engagement and growth.
- Cultivate and maintain new relationships with prospective and existing corporate and external brand partners.
- Work onsite at festivals for brand activation, awareness and collect show content.
- Graduate's Degree in business.
- Comfortable working in a cloud-based environment.
- Well informed on all marketing and social media trends.
- Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite and editing programs like Final Cut Pro.
- Exhibit strong leadership and decision making skills.
How much does a Music Manager make?
Base Pay
Additional Pay
$56,166
/ yrMusic Manager Career Path
Learn how to become a Music Manager, what skills and education you need to succeed, and what level of pay to expect at each step on your career path.
Years of Experience Distribution
Music Manager Insights
Audacy“Everyone that works here is fun and wonderful to work with.”
GigFinesse“I actually look forward to going to work each day and appreciate my extremely flexible hours.”
“Only downside is the owner is meticulous about making sure sure talent are top notch.”
Warner Music Group“I got to work on my passion music and work with some great artists.”
Churchome“It was fun to work with friends”
Entertainment One“Low pay rates compared to industry standards”
DreamWorks Animation“Great people to work with”
BMG Models“it was a good place to learn”
Frequently asked questions about the roles and responsibilities of a Music Manager
- Business Development Manager
- Sales Manager
- Sales Representative
- Customer Relations