What is the Artist Manager's Role in Our D.I.Y Era?

I was browsing for articles related to the topic of artist management because I have taken an interest in what it takes to really be successful as an artist manager and wanted to explore what it really meant to work in artist management. Here’s a brief overview of an article written by Jeremy Rwakaara on a special new emerging era of artist management.

D.I.Y stands for Do It Yourself and typically new independent artists choose this route either because they feel they are capable of handling all the necessities about their career on their own or perhaps because they could not find a manager or label willing to help them. The article brought up a great point that nowadays, the artist fan relationship is of critical importance to an artist and it is easier now more than ever to build that up in our digital world. We now have management resources such as ReverbNation, one of my favorite sites to check out new artists, and other tools that allow an artist to engage in direct contact with fans of theirs. Some sites like Sonicbids allow an artist to book their own venues, and music distributors such as CD Baby allow artists to distribute music to fans via iTunes and of course all the social media networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are enormous channels of publicity and promotion an artist can use and reach millions in an instant.

It sounds as though the role of a traditional artist manager has been severely limited or maybe even completely washed away, but that isn’t true. It has simply transitioned into one where they are no longer just concentrated on getting their artist a record deal but about finding ways to generate more income and ways to increase their artists’ fanbase via they ways I just mentioned above. “The manager’s role in the D.I.Y age is less that of an advocate and cheerleader, and more that of an analyst and advisor.” This is so the artist can focus on recording, their live shows and supporting their fans. Using a well rounded combination of resources, an artist manager can sit and think of new products that need to be added, which pay models work the best, see which of the artists’ products sell the most, learn of any new trends or patterns, or what are the most useful widgets. They can even figure out what videos, songs, or t-shirts fans love the most, what ways do fans love to engage and interact the most with their artist, and even through analyzing, reveal the real costs associated with their artist’s operations and that is important.

This article opened up my eyes to the fact that even though the artist may be able to do much of this on their own, to be able to have time and energy to record their best songs or for a tour or to truly engage with their fans, they need to leave all of this “dry” work as the article says to their manager and the manager still has to have the right strategy in mind for their artist that will bring them both lots of revenues and success and knows how to get the most out of their resources available to them. The artist manager must show the artist that they need them or else they will be washed away and that will not be a good look for the industry overall. Everyone needs some help in getting to where they need to be and for me the artist manager and artist will always go hand in hand in order for true success to be reached by an artist. 

http://www.artistmanagementresource.com/helpful-articles/45-what-is-the-artist-managers-role-in-todays-diy-era.html