Audience: Artist Managers | Read time: 8 min

The first 90 days of a management relationship set the tone for everything that follows. A structured onboarding process prevents misunderstandings, aligns expectations, and gives you the information you need to start making good decisions for your client's career. Most management relationships that fail come apart over misalignment that nobody addressed at the start, while the ability of both parties was never the issue.

The Music Managers Forum's Managing Expectations report series has documented this pattern consistently. Managers who invest in structured processes early are better positioned to build sustainable businesses and deliver results. The MMF's 2024 Management Deals Guide noted that as managers take on an expanding set of responsibilities, from social media oversight to A&R-level creative input to direct financial investment in artist development, a clear onboarding process becomes more critical rather than less. Without one, both sides run on assumptions that erode trust over time.

This framework breaks the first 90 days into five phases: pre-signing alignment, information gathering, audit and assessment, strategy development, and execution with adjustment.

Have a frank conversation about expectations before any paperwork is signed. This conversation is where most problems get prevented or get baked in for the next three years.

The questions that matter are deceptively simple. What does the artist want from management? What does your management style look like? How often will you communicate, and through which channels? Which decisions need the artist's explicit approval, and which can you handle alone? What is the artist's financial situation, and what do they expect to earn over the next 12 months?

Victoria Monet's manager described one of the most instructive examples of pre-signing alignment in a 2024 interview. When the two first met, Monet arrived with a detailed binder containing short-term goals, long-term goals and a candid self-assessment of her strengths and weaknesses. That level of preparation signalled work ethic, self-awareness and a willingness to engage as a partner, and it gave the manager a concrete foundation for a strategic plan from day one.

Few artists arrive with a binder. You can prompt the same clarity by asking the right questions and writing down the answers. The goal is mutual understanding of four things: where the artist is now, where they want to be, what role you play in getting there, and how you will communicate along the way.

Standard management commission sits at 15 to 20% of gross income, though the MMF's 2024 Management Deals Guide highlights a growing range of alternatives including fixed minimum fees, extended sunset clauses, co-management agreements, consultancy retainers, joint ventures and hybrid management and booking models. Commission remains the most common structure, and the right deal still depends on what the manager brings, what the artist's current revenue looks like, and what both parties consider fair.

Provisions to discuss during onboarding: commission scope, meaning gross against net, which income streams are included and what exclusions apply; term length, typically one to three years with option periods; performance benchmarks that trigger continuation or termination; key person clauses ensuring a specific individual manages the artist; and sunset clauses reducing commission over time after the relationship ends. An entertainment attorney should review any management agreement before signing, without exception.

Week 1 is pure information gathering. Collect everything you need to understand the artist's current business, creative output and professional network, and hold off on decisions until you have it all in front of you.

That last item is where most onboarding loses a week. Screenshots and CSV exports go stale immediately and live in a folder nobody opens again. Connecting the artist's sources to a workspace instead gives you the same history with the ongoing feed attached, and AndR holds streaming, social, radio, fan capture and live demand in one place per artist.

There is a second reason to set this up during onboarding rather than later. The workspace belongs to the artist, so the history stays with them through team changes. If you are the third manager this artist has had, you already know what the alternative looks like: two years of context that left with somebody else, and an audit that starts from whatever screenshots survived.

Complete the checklist within the first five to seven business days. If an item takes longer, note the delay and the reason, because gaps in information are data points too. An artist who cannot produce financial records or reach their own distributor dashboard is telling you something about the state of their business operations.

Once you have the raw information, the audit turns data into insight. You are looking for patterns, gaps, risks and opportunities.

Streaming analysis. Where do streams come from geographically? Which markets show the most growth? What is the listener-to-follower conversion rate, as an indicator of fan commitment? What is the skip rate on recent releases? Which songs carry the highest save rate, and what does that say about audience preference? Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists provide the essential platform data at no cost, and the work of the audit is comparing across sources rather than reading any one of them, which is the job AndR's consolidated workspace is built to do.

Revenue analysis. What is the breakdown by stream? How much comes from streaming against live, merchandise, sync and other sources? What is the revenue per listener ratio, meaning total monthly revenue divided by monthly listeners and multiplied by 1,000? An artist generating $102 per 1,000 listeners monetises well. One generating $15 per 1,000 has a revenue problem regardless of stream count.

Contractual review. Are there restrictions limiting what you can do? Is the artist locked into a distribution deal that blocks better terms? Are there outstanding recoupment balances with a label? Are publishing rights encumbered? Do active brand deals carry exclusivity that conflicts with new opportunities? Flag everything that constrains your options.

Team assessment. Who is on the current team, and is anyone underperforming or misaligned with the direction? Are there critical gaps, such as no booking agent for an artist ready to tour or no publicist ahead of a major release? Does the team communicate, or are there silos?

Content and brand review. Is the visual identity consistent across platforms? Does the content strategy match the creative direction? Are there obvious misses in content type, posting frequency or platform selection?

Document every finding, because the audit becomes the evidence base for the strategic plan you present to the artist.

The audit establishes where the artist is. The strategy document defines where they are going and how they get there, and it is the single most important deliverable of onboarding.

Release strategy. From unreleased material, audience data and competitive landscape, map a release calendar covering singles, EPs or albums, features, remixes and any sync opportunities. Give each release a clear objective: grow a specific market, build playlist momentum, support a tour, test a new sonic direction.

Content cadence. Define the rhythm of non-music content, from social posts and behind-the-scenes material to live streams, interviews and press, aligned to the release calendar so content supports each phase of the rollout.

Touring and live performance targets. From geographic streaming data and booking history, identify target markets and set capacity and revenue targets realistic for the artist's current level. The Lucky Daye case is instructive: his former manager insisted on touring with a live band despite the cost, because she recognised his strength in live performance and accepted short-term losses to build a touring business that paid off later.

Where the artist has fans registering demand in cities they have not played, treat those figures as a directional routing floor. They are not forecasts and they do not compare against ticket sales, and they will tell you whether a market is worth a date before you commit a guarantee to it.

Revenue goals. Set specific, measurable targets for each income stream, grounded in audit data rather than aspiration.

Team needs. From the audit, identify hires or contractors needed to execute. Common early gaps are a booking agent, publicist, content creator or social media manager. The MMF's 2024 Workforce Edition found 76% of managers handle social media for their clients and 65% handle PR and promotion, both areas where delegation makes sense once budget allows.

Present the plan and get explicit buy-in before executing. Treat it as a real review rather than a signature: the artist should understand the reasoning behind every major recommendation and should have room to push back, ask questions and request changes. A plan the artist does not believe in will not survive contact with reality.

Execution is where the plan meets the real world. Track results, hold the communication rhythm, and adjust on what the data shows rather than what you assumed.

Track results weekly. Capture the key metrics for each strategic priority and review them every week, even in quiet weeks. Consistency in tracking prevents the drift that pulls managers away from strategic objectives. Whatever holds the numbers should be the same place every week and should take minutes rather than an afternoon, because a weekly review that costs half a day stops happening by month three.

Establish a standing check-in with the artist. Natalie Prosper, who managed Lucky Daye through four Grammy nominations, described the tension that surfaces around the 18-month to two-year mark, when artists begin questioning a manager's time and priorities. Structured, predictable communication from day one is the antidote, because a cadence built early becomes the norm rather than something imposed once trust is already strained.

Adjust the plan on evidence. A 12-month strategy is a living plan that updates on real performance. If a market you expected to grow shows nothing, reallocate. If an unexpected viral moment creates demand in a new territory, revisit the touring plan. Clinging to the original document looks like discipline and functions as unresponsiveness.

Consistent, predictable communication is the structural backbone of the relationship. Without it, small misunderstandings compound into major conflicts.

Weekly check-ins, 30 minutes. The past week's activity, upcoming priorities, decisions needing the artist's input, and emerging opportunities or problems. Keep it tight and save the open-ended thinking for the monthly.

Monthly strategy reviews, 60 minutes. Step back from the day-to-day and review progress against the 12-month plan. What is on track, what is behind, what needs to change. Bring data.

Quarterly deep dives. Revenue against targets, the overall direction of the career, and any fundamental shift in strategy. A good moment to revisit the expectations set in the pre-signing conversation and check that both sides still feel aligned.

Everything documented in writing. After each meeting, send a brief summary of what was discussed and decided. That creates an institutional record which prevents the "I thought we agreed" dispute, and it demonstrates professionalism while it does so.

Ninety days from signing to full execution mode. Week one is information gathering, weeks two to four are audit and assessment, weeks four to eight are strategy development, and weeks nine to twelve are initial execution and adjustment. Rushing it produces decisions built on incomplete information.

Common, especially with early-career artists. Treat it as the first operational task of the relationship. Set up a password manager for credentials, a spreadsheet or accounting tool for income, and properly registered accounts with their PRO and distributor. The absence of those systems before you arrived is itself a reason the artist needs management.

Between 15 and 20% of gross income, though the MMF's 2024 Management Deals Guide documents a growing range of alternatives including fixed fees, retainers, joint ventures and hybrid models. The right structure depends on the services provided, the artist's revenue level and what both parties agree is fair. Always have an entertainment attorney review the agreement.

Document the constraints and build the strategy around them. If a distribution deal is suboptimal with 18 months remaining, plan the renegotiation for when the term expires. If a brand deal carries exclusivity, make sure your release and partnership strategy avoids the conflict. Treat constraints as the parameters your plan has to work inside.

The MMF's 2024 Workforce Edition found the vast majority of managers are self-employed and handle a wide range of functions beyond core management. Delegation becomes practical when revenue supports it and when a specific function consumes enough time to justify a specialist. The audit phase usually reveals which areas would benefit most.

Music Managers Forum: Managing Expectations, Management Deals Guide (November 2024). The growing diversity of deal structures between managers and artists, including commission-based models around 20%, extended sunset clauses, fixed minimum fees, co-management agreements, consultancy retainers and joint ventures. Presented at the 2024 MMF Manager Summit. musicweek.com

Music Managers Forum: Managing Expectations, Workforce Edition (2024). Survey of 176 MMF members: 90% self-employed or freelance, 60% earning less than a minimum full-time wage, 76% handling social media for clients, 65% handling PR and promotion, 57% handling tour management, with a significant drop in managers still operating after five years. musicweek.com

Billboard: 2024 Artist Manager of the Year interview (2024). How Victoria Monet presented a detailed binder with short-term goals, long-term goals and self-assessment at the initial management meeting, plus the development of the Jaguar brand identity and the path from independent releases to Grammy success. billboard.com

Lucky Daye's former manager on artist management (2024). Natalie Prosper, founder of The Outliers, on artist development timelines, investing in live performance despite short-term losses, the 18-month to two-year tension point, and boundary-setting for sustainable management. youtube.com

MMF and YouTube Music: Accelerator Programme (May 2025). 133 managers completed the programme since 2019, over 90% still operating as managers, with the 2024 cohort reporting an average 18% increase in year-on-year earnings. ppluk.com

Stagent: How to Manage an Artist (2025). Management expectations, communication cadence, team coordination and the challenge of managing artist expectations through career uncertainty. stagent.com