In November, the Music Business program starts at Moscow Music School , whose students will study the intricacies of management and promotion of artists throughout the year. Afisha Daily learned from the course's curators and instructors what is wrong with music management in Russia and how Moscow Music School is going to rectify the situation.

Who is a Professional Music artist manager

The musicians are in full view of everyone, but in order for the concert to take place, the album was recorded, and the musician did not starve to death, specialists of a different kind are needed. Music managers are gray cardinals who build the careers of their clients and help organize performances. Sometimes this is a whole team, sometimes one of all trades is a master, but without a competent manager , it is much more difficult for an artist to achieve fame.

There remains, however, the question of definition. Everyone understands what a musician, sound engineer, or technician does - but the functions of a manager are not so obvious even to people within the industry.

“A music manager for an artist is, first of all, a person who removes all non-creative tasks from a creative person: planning, promotion, negotiations, legal issues, finding sources of income, and so on and so forth. Any of these tasks requires immersion in the topic and constant monitoring, since the tools and the industry change every year: what was important a year ago, today, with a high degree of probability, is either outdated or has acquired a new look. For artists, keeping track of all trends, diving into seemingly insignificant details (and there are many more than it seems) takes time and energy that they could spend on creativity.

In turn, experience can also be erroneous, and a manager who has successfully completed one project may fail another, acting according to the same plan. The task of a good education is to show the whole range of marketing, analytical and everyday tools. "

“Due to the development of the Internet, services, the emergence of a new culture of music consumption and cultural shifts in society, the boundaries between producers, managers, directors and even managing the artist's companies have been erased. Now each individual case presupposes its own set of competencies and responsibilities. It happens that one person performs all functions and is responsible for everything. But more often it is two or three people who can substitute for each other, plus attracted specialists and partners.

For each situation, for each artist and his stage of development, you need to form your own management team. But we must clearly understand that creativity should be balanced by lawyers and people who know how to count money and plan

When I came from a strict state structure to the music business in 2004, I was simply amazed at the low level of development of the market and specialists. Few knew and understood what and how to do, everyone was afraid of each other and tried to somehow solve everything in their own way, they closed their eyes to obvious violations and gray schemes, to unprofessionalism. But I was lucky: at Gala Records (then - the official representative of EMI in Russia, now - Warner Music) there was a young CEO with a legal education (like me), not spoiled by the business of the nineties, a good new chief lawyer not from the music business , and all the necessary background of the music business was transferred to us, without unnecessary clogging of the brain, by the co-owner of the company and a couple of trusted employees.

The schemes for working with an artist may be different, but the main thing is that the artist clearly understands who is responsible for what range of issues in his environment, who is responsible and for what. Also, the artist's manager can be part of the label, or it can be an independent player who solves all issues on behalf of the artist: with whom and under what conditions to sign distribution or rights management agreements, how to organize a concert direction, how to interact with partners and investors, with whom to work in the studio and on video, how to position the artist ”.

What's wrong with Professional music management in Russia

The main problem with this industry is not only that it is much younger in Russia than in the West, but also that, unlike many other specialties, it is not so easy to define what music managers do. In fact, people who are critical to the industry turn out to be “experts on all kinds of issues” - and this uncertainty slows down development.