How to Manage a Music Artist the Easy Way

Even the coolest rock stars make mistakes. Hey, we’re all human, and it’s just an inevitable part of life. But with the proper tools and anticipation, mistakes on your end and theirs can be avoided. Decision-making and problem prediction are fundamental aspects of learning how to manage a music artist.

As all decision-makers know, ensuring the proper channels are being utilized correctly is the key to efficiency. Event management software is the key that can help you fine-tune a solution while making your life a whole lot easier.

There’s no reason you have to do everything on your own. We’re here to help you discover the best tools for music artist management. So grab your old school Staples button because, by the end of this article, we’ll have you saying, “That was easy.”

How to Manage a Music Artist when Mental Health is a Prevalent Concern

In an industry that is seemingly jam-packed with private affairs between insiders, it’s no secret that managing stress while performing effectively is crucial to success in the music business.

Mental health issues within the industry are rampant. A majority of independent musicians have had symptoms of depression or anxiety concerning their careers. This number is even higher amongst industry professionals such as show promoters and venue operators. And the pandemic certainly didn’t help anything.

A survey conducted by Skiddle revealed that lack of financial security, fear of failure, and damage to interpersonal relationships are the three leading causes of stress, anxiety, and depression among industry professionals. You may be able to relate.

The survey found that 45% of promoters said what bothers them most about their job is “no regular income,” and 25% said working within the industry has hurt their interpersonal relationships. Approximately one-third of people working in promotions reported that they have been spoken to unacceptably. More than 60% reported frequently feeling an “intense and unmanageable” level of stress.

Working 9+ hours six days a week takes its toll both physically and mentally, and allocating the time and resources to properly unwind and decompress can be pretty challenging. Time is a valuable resource, and its management is conducive to success in any industry. 

When you’re wondering how to manage a music artist, you have to consider your mental health and theirs as well, which can be challenging and draining. It’s essential to find ways to eliminate stressors that are causing unnecessary strife, and that starts with having the right tools to make your job and theirs much easier.

Transparency is Essential

Communication is everything when it comes to building relationships, yet many booking agents, venues and promoters don’t have the right tools to simplify this part of the job. Something as seemingly harmless as leaving an artist on hold for too long could potentially damage an important relationship. 

Word of mouth is crucial in every industry, and the music industry is no different. To thrive, you need artists and their agents supporting your business. The better you can communicate, the more responsive you can be, and the more organized your operations, the better your reputation and your relationships.

We all get touchy about payments, but it’s essential to communicate with your artist about what information you have on your end and set the proper expectations. Why? Underpaying or overpaying artists is a more typical mistake than you may think.

With guarantees, ticket sales, and bar cuts all contributing to an artist’s payout, it can be easy to slip up and make an accounting error. What seems like a small mistake may have significant and long-lasting repercussions that can damage relationships and negatively impact your business. 

Settle payouts, manage artist holds, and book shows swiftly with a budgeting and calendar tool. Never be in the dark about how much profit you will generate on any given night, and never keep the artist in the dark either.

Data visualization allows you to project profit from a specific show, night, week, or month and even make future projections. Data is the currency of efficiency that can be used to optimize profits. Determining if a show is financially viable or not is a breeze when you’re using solid software to manage your events.

How do you manage a music artist? The more open you are with the artist you’re managing, the more respect they’ll have for you and the more they’ll trust you.

Simplifying the Booking and Operations Processes with Event Management Software

The many variables associated with booking and venue operations are bound to cause some stress, and performing under pressure will eventually lead to making mistakes. Continually making mistakes is a surefire way to lose money.

A simple way to cut back on work-induced stress and accurately make decisions that positively impact your business is to utilize event management software.

It’s easy to overlook seemingly simple things without the proper tools. Many event planning systems can’t integrate with other necessary systems such as your POS systems, employee scheduling system, budgeting & payout systems, and other task management systems. If everything is scattered about, there’s a higher chance of information getting lost in the shuffle of everyday work.

And don’t even get us started on using the classic method of writing important things down on a yellow legal pad. To manage a music artist, you have to have a more reliable method.

Losing even a scrap of information in this industry could potentially cause everything to come crashing down. Having multiple individual systems that do not integrate with each other will become confusing for you, your staff, and the many departments in which they work. 

Learning How to Manage a Music Artist with a Little Help from Your Friends

What makes Prism’s Event Management Software stand out from the crowd is that it’s built for people in the music industry by people in the music industry. Planning and promoting events should be fun, not anxiety-provoking.

We set out to make managing music artists more, well, manageable.

With the task management tool, you can eliminate stress by efficiently assigning tasks with deadlines to any employee in the corresponding department. Like all of Prism’s features, the task management tool works in real-time and can help venue operators see hangups within their process and find out precisely what is causing delays in progress.

The budgeting and calendar tool enables you to quickly approve expenses and send weekly or daily updates to any employee to whom tasks are assigned.

You’ll always be aware of a task’s status with our toggle view, which allows jobs to be viewed categorically. Simply select tasks by the entire organization, specific departments, particular employees, or by task status.

If you’re less stressed, then you’ll be able to give your artists a better experience, and they’ll be less stressed in turn. And after the nightmare that has been COVID-19, we all need less stress in our lives.

It is easy to become overwhelmed when pitfalls are seemingly waiting around every corner. Allocating resources can be tough, but the right event management software that helps you manage music artists makes everything easy.

To learn more about the capabilities of Prism or to schedule your personalized demo, visit here.