The Middle Man - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Managers, Record Labels, Publicists, Agents, Lawyers, and Promoters. Just a few of the titles that we give "Middle Men (and Women)" in the music world. I myself as a manager at Wine From The Moon am a middle man. Any person or entity that is associated with a band and takes a percentage of that bands income falls into that category.
The question bands need to ask themselves is simple. "Why do we need a middle man?"
In a perfect world, a band would handle all the tasks of being a band without any help. They would manage themselves, distribute their own records, contact press outlets, license their music to film, promote their own shows, and so on. The advantage of doing all that work, you keep all the money.
Think about it. Let's say your band gets signed to a label. That label gives your band a budget to make a record. Awesome, you aren't spending your own money! But not so awesome, you have to pay that money back to the label AND that label will get a percentage of the profits from each record sold. Those are profits that can go into your bands pocket.
Every person you add to your team grabs a part of the revenue the team is generating. Bands need to make sure the cost is worth it. If you are an unorganized person who doesn't have much of a clue how the music industry works, a manager might be a good addition. If you don't have time to research press outlets, mail out records, keep media informed about upcoming shows, then you should pay a publicist to do that.Â
The key here is to never hire someone if you can do the job yourself. Put in the extra hours and keep more money. It is that simple.
There are tons of great middle men out there that can help your band move forward. Wine From The Moon is based out of Chicago, and in this city alone we have Bloodshot Records, Novo, Kilo Records, Minty Fresh, Windish, Harmonica Dunn, Audio Tree, Billions, and the list goes on. These companies have done great things for bands, but WE ALL TAKE A SLICE OF THE PIE. MAKE SURE WE ARE WORTH IT!
