Throwing away the artist management rulebook.

by Robert Ashton

In today's ever-changing industry climate, artist managers are having to constantly reappraise their methods in order to secure the best deals for their acts. Despite the influx of challenges, however, the potential for profit and control has never been better

Things were different in the old days. Before MySpace, YouTube, the rise of downloads and the fall of CD sales, a manager would find an act and sign them to a record company.

The label would then provide a hefty advance - sometimes with no expectation of it ever being recouped - in return for a long list of options, down to how much the artist should be charged for breakages.

Then along came the internet and, a few years later, plummeting music prices and CD sales. In came cost-cutting and new thinking. Labels are now required to prop up their diminishing recorded music revenues with money from other areas - notably live music, TV programming and merchandising. Many have put in place structures to facilitate these ancillary rights - the so-called 360-degree models.

But, while labels once called the shots, this shake-up of business practices has opened the door to managers and their charges. They have realised they no longer need to hock their futures to a record company for the next decade or five more albums - whichever comes quickest.

There are now many new routes to market and a number of new ways of financing the way there: they do not all rely on the largesse of a record label. The record deal is no longer the only game in town.