[Music Business - Get in here!] What would think about a guy that...

[HeadCrusher]

...sends you a message on MySpace and says he wants to be your manager?

Met him yesterday and ...

• he says he worked for EMI at Abbey Roads for eight years working his way up from intern to engineer.
• he says that he owns a recording studio in his homecountry.
• he seems to have some legal troubles (Music Copyright thing) in his homecountry.
• he came to our smalltown city more or less by accident
• he asks 25% commission on everything. No fixed salary.
• he says he has Major Label contacts in Germany and England.
• apparently he and his family (+2) have been living on the money he made in London or wherever for the past year or so as he was trying to build his management business.
• he doesn't have any big names on his roaster. Just some of our fellow local heroes. He currently has a total of 13 bands on his roaster.
• he claims that in case we come to an aggrement a contract could be canceled at any time by both parties (him or the band).
• he claims that he is working all day on management stuff for his bands and does about two hours of booking in the afternoon on top of that every day.

Well, that's all the facts basically. I'd like to hear your thoughts before I post what I think so you guys aren't biased. Looking forward to your hints.

 

[Executioner213]

Ignore him.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Care to elaborate on that?

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

[*]he seems to have some legal troubles (Music Copyright thing) in his homecountry.

^ id stay away just from hearing that

 

[Executioner213]

No need to elaborate. It sounds like the guy is gonna play you like a Sega.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Interesting thing: He told me about that without me even asking. I mean how would I have known anyway?. Apparently someone says he stole some riffs or whatever but he didn't (or at least he says so).

 

[Executioner213]

Oh man...if that were the case, I'm sure nobody has room to bitch more than Tony Iommi, for starters...

You could go further, I know...just an example

 

[Executioner213]

I'd say if you need a manager, then you should decide what qualities you need to hire from...not just pick up a guy because he has "connections" and worked with such-and-such. Anyone who just cold-messages you because they want to be your manager seems shifty to me. It's not like you are an establishment who *might* need someone to sweep the floor and take out the trash, all of which you could do on your own but it would be nice to have someone else do it. If you are going to pursue any further with any interest, I'd start asking for references from anyone who is willing to support that he can get shit done. 25% is a lot of money you won't be making if he's just gonna be a fuck-off who tags along.

 

[thefyn]

If you make $0 now, do it.

If you make good money now. Don't do it.

 

[HeadCrusher]

They way I understand it he'll only be make the 25% if he actually figures something out for us. If we get as a gig ourselves he won't be making anything. So he most likely would only be getting money for things we couldn't have done ourselves or we wouldn't have thought of and so on. Cause if we could have done it or if we knew about s/t we'd have already pursued it anyway.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Fyi all we make now is a couple hundred every other gig if we are lucky. We've had some cool stuff happening though, e.g. Airplay or getting invited to some pretty huge event...

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

if you do decide to go with him....make sure you read that contract literally 100 times before you sign ANYTHING

 

[HeadCrusher]

I'll actually have the contract looked at by a friend who has been signed to two different Major Labels. Also I'll have my law student friend check it out. (She's currently writing her Master thesis so I guess she should know her stuff more or less. )

 

[Lasse Lammert]

definitely a good idea to have a lawyer check it.
still...pretty sure you're gonna regret it if you sign that contract.

25% is the very upper limit of what a good manager charges....and he just seems to be a regular guy, charging more than most known pro managers.
I'd really really advice you to stay away from that.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Yeah, I was under the impression that 15-20% were more common...

 

[arv_foh]

Half of the people like this in the "music business" are full of shit and just trying to make a quick dime off you, actually I would say that number is well over half and probably closer to 90%

 

[Executioner213]

^ is the plain-vanilla reason why I said "Ignore Him"

 

[thefyn]

Fyi all we make now is a couple hundred every other gig if we are lucky. We've had some cool stuff happening though, e.g. Airplay or getting invited to some pretty huge event...

It sounds like you need management then.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Alright, so here's what I think: At first I was very spectical as well. His method of approaching (MySpace) seemed very odd and he seems to be a guy who talks a lot. Not having any management work from the past proofing his skills in that field didn't really help either. The fact that he only has small and local bands on his roaster...well, another one on the negative side.

BUT: As long as I make sure that

• the contract is legit
• he doesn't get any money as long as he isn't responsible for that particular stream of income (e.g. If we book a show ourselves there should be no money in that for him)
• we can get out of that contract whenever we want w/o having to make further payments

we should be fine, right?

I mean if he doesn't get us anything... Well, no money for him either. Maybe I can reduce his percentage down to 20 or even 15%. No harm done, I guess?

Am I missing anything crucial here??

 

[Mago]

hm dunno....through myspace is quite odd, in case you have other mail adresses on there i would be more pro if he'd written to one of these.
or is myspace the only way to communicate with you?

in welcher band spielst du btw?