Artist Management Agreement: A Clause Specification
An artist management agreement should define the manager's services, time commitment, territory, exclusivity, conflicts, term, options, performance expectations, commission rate and exact base, excluded and pass-through income, expenses, collection and accounting, approvals, signing authority, power of attorney, data access, confidentiality, key person, termination, handoff, and post-term commission. Both sides should receive independent legal advice before signing.
Lead visual
A music team is a responsibility map
Artist
owns the direction
Manager
turns plans into motion
Lawyer
protects deal terms
Partner
amplifies the release
Business · Contracts
Team decision map
Use this for
Understand what a partner actually does before you give up money, rights, or control.
Watch for
The wrong support can cost more control than it returns in leverage.
Check
Role, incentives, fee, term, deliverables, approval rights, and what stays in your hands.
Result
A clearer yes, no, or not-yet decision about the next person or company around your project.
Key takeaways
- Define the manager's actual job, exclusions, time commitment, territory, conflicts, and key person.
- Read the commission rate only with its base, exclusions, timing, deductions, and worked examples.
- Limit approvals, collection, accounts, passwords, signing authority, and any power of attorney deliberately.
- Connect term and exclusivity to service, performance, cure, termination, and handoff.
- Map every post-term commission path before another manager could enter.
What must an artist management agreement specify?
Management agreement specification
Twelve fields that control the relationship
Parties
Artist members and entity, manager and company, capacity, addresses, signer authority, and prior obligations.
Identifies who owes duties and who can enforce them.
Career scope
Managed activities, excluded businesses, territory, exclusivity, existing deals, and side projects.
Prevents commission and authority from drifting beyond the agreed career.
Services
Strategy, recording, releases, touring, marketing, team, deals, administration, finance, reporting, and exclusions.
Turns the title manager into reviewable work.
Capacity
Time commitment, personnel, key person, substitution, delegation, subcontractors, response, and continuity.
Tests whether the promised services can actually be delivered.
Conflict
Roster, labels, publishers, agents, producers, vendors, ownership interests, referrals, multiple roles, and written consent.
Exposes divided loyalty and double compensation.
Term
Start, trial, initial period, options, conditions, renewal, performance, suspension, and long-stop date.
Shows how long exclusivity can continue and who controls extension.
Commission
Rate, gross or net base, managed activities, source, territory, receipt timing, deductions, exclusions, pass-throughs, taxes, and examples.
Converts a headline percentage into the actual economic result.
Money control
Who invoices, collects, holds, pays, approves expenses, keeps records, reports, and permits audit.
Separates management advice from custody of artist funds.
Authority
Approvals, deal negotiation, signing, bank or platform access, notices, power of attorney, limits, copies, and revocation.
Prevents implied authority from replacing explicit consent.
Risk
Confidentiality, privacy, security, IP, publicity, insurance, compliance, representations, indemnity, and liability.
Allocates harm, information, and third-party claims.
Exit
Breach, cure, convenience, key-person event, incapacity, handoff, accounts, files, contacts, pending deals, and notices.
Makes termination operational rather than rhetorical.
Sunset
Qualifying deals and sources, negotiation or causation test, renewals, options, rate, decline, term, statements, audit, and replacement manager.
Shows exactly what survives and when it ends.
How should the commission formula be tested?
| Question to answer | Failure if undefined | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | Which career activities, deals, sources, territories, entities, and receipts enter the base? | Commission can expand to unrelated or pre-existing income |
| Gross or net | Which taxes, refunds, costs, third-party shares, grants, budgets, and pass-throughs are excluded or deducted? | The same rate produces radically different payment |
| Timing | Is commission earned on contract, invoice, receipt, accrual, or payment, and what happens to reversals? | The manager may claim money the artist never receives |
| Expenses | Which costs need approval, caps, receipts, currency conversion, tax treatment, and repayment timing? | Uncontrolled costs can sit beside commission |
| Post-term | Which deals qualify, how the rate declines, when it ends, and how a replacement manager is handled? | Two managers may claim overlapping commission indefinitely |
A code of conduct is not a substitute for the contract
MMF Canada provides useful expectations on transparency, conflicts, multiple roles, confidentiality, client interests, and legal advice. The signed agreement and applicable law still determine the parties' specific rights and remedies.
keep unresolved management terms visible before release work
Which sources govern artist management agreements?
Frequently asked questions
What should be in an artist management agreement?+
Include parties and artist entity, managed activities, territory, exclusivity, services and exclusions, time commitment, key person, conflicts, outside roles, term and options, performance expectations, commission rate and defined base, excluded income, expenses, collections, statements, audit, approvals, authority, power of attorney, data and accounts, confidentiality, insurance, indemnity, termination, cure, post-term commission, handoff, disputes, and advice acknowledgements.
What percentage should an artist manager receive?+
There is no safe universal percentage. The rate must be reviewed with its commission base, exclusions, services, territory, term, career activities, team roles, expenses, collection rights, and sunset. A lower rate on broadly defined gross income can cost more than a higher rate on a carefully limited base. Model real revenue, taxes, grants, budgets, pass-throughs, and third-party shares.
What income should be excluded from management commission?+
That is a negotiated business and legal question. Candidates for explicit treatment can include taxes, refunds, recording or tour budgets, grants, gifts, loans, pass-through collaborator shares, union or pension amounts, production costs, merchandise cost, existing deals, and income outside managed activities. Do not rely on custom; name every inclusion, exclusion, deduction, timing rule, and worked example.
What is a sunset clause in a management contract?+
A sunset or post-term commission clause governs whether and how the former manager earns commission after termination. Review which deals, income sources, renewals, options, extensions, territories, and receipts qualify; the rate and decline; statement and audit rights; end date; causation or negotiation test; and interaction with a replacement manager. Never accept the word sunset without its complete formula.
Should a manager have power of attorney for an artist?+
Only if qualified counsel determines a narrowly defined power is necessary and safe. Identify exact acts, accounts, contracts, limits, approvals, copies, duration, revocation, incapacity, conflicts, recordkeeping, and governing formalities. A broad irrevocable power can let another person bind the artist or control money. Management services do not automatically require authority to sign every agreement.
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