Q & A
Each month, MusicBizAdvice.com answers your questions about the music industry.
Management Double Commissions
Q. Can you explain
personal managers earning double commissions on entertainment contracts entered into by
the artist with a company owned or controlled by the manager...or where the manager
packages or promotes an event artist is involved? Thanks. --RB
A. Double commissions
happen when the manager takes on acts as management and also books live events. The
manager who books his or her management clients and takes a booking cut for the live gigs
they book is duplicitous. This practice is illegal in several states and cities, including
California, New York, Massachusetts, and the city of Nashville.
This practice is illegalized in these
states not only for the above-mentioned reason of double take in percentages, but also
because it hurts the booking agency clients who are not the management clients, who would obviously be privy to the good bookings first.
I recommend veering away from any company
who offers both services in one place, unless your contract with said firm clearly states
that double commissions are not permissible. You are better served having a separate
booking agent and manager. If you are in any of the states mentioned, please report this
illegal practice to your local Better Business Bureau or City Business Registrar.
--Darcie-Nicole Wicknick, Independent Music Business Consultant
Update 8/2007: While it's still
illegal in the above cities and states for a manager to book artists,
in the time since Darcie gave
the great advice above, there have been vast changes in the music industry
climate. New types of management deals
appear ever day, particularly as labels take on less artist development
duties, and laws haven't kept up. So, some managers are trying to take on
(and charge heavy extra commissions for) some of these responsibilities in
house. Sometimes this is legal, sometimes it is not. It all depends on the
wording and interpretation of the law in a given city or state.
Regardless of legality, my advice is this: "Never put all your eggs in one
basket, and never let one chicken try to watch them all." In other words,
letting one entity take care of your songwriting, production, live show
staging, artist management, music distribution, hiring, and publicity is a
very dangerous thing. Because even if the chicken in question has the best
of intentions, something can go terribly wrong.--Randi Reed, Founder,
Editor-in-Chief
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