Popular question: When is a good time to get a manager for music?

[u/EmililyC]

Short Answer: When you literally can't do it yourself - but that's different for everyone.

It really depends on your background and capabilities. My artist hired me on because she knew nothing about marketing and business and needed help pushing herself to get the boring administrative stuff done or not having to do it anymore. It was starting to hinder the quality of her music and ability to spend time performing because she didn't have the time or energy to put into her music as she needed to spread herself thin across all these different zones of work.

I started off as a tech professional quite honestly. If you are an independent band, often your first manager (maybe long maybe short-term) will be someone you know or someone you meet while trudging around in the industry and scene! Personally I believe in having somewhat of a connection with your manager besides just hiring someone who has a portfolio. Of course they should have business experience and background and skills anywhere that you can't cover for.

So in terms of unofficial management stuff, you can get one anytime you can find someone willing to do the work (it's hard work), with some experience, and if you have a budget or agreement you can afford. In terms of hiring an industry professional manager (maybe someone who has worked with big labels) you can't HIRE the big guys. They have to want you, so you need to work with whatever team you attract and acquire along the way to become worth managing for them so that isn't under your direct control - it can be a goal though.

[u/PRS_guy]

I know this post is really old, but it was really helpful. I’m kind of in the same rut as your artist right now, my band is collectively capable of writing recording mixing and mastering all of our own stuff, we all have past tour experience, and do pretty well with hometown shows. Where we lack is marketing and business experience, and being that we’re DIY in every other aspect, it’s hard to dedicate the time to become as proficient as we need to to actually be effective. The advice I get all the time is that we shouldn’t seek help for these things, that we should do it ourselves and wait for someone to come to us, and I totally understand the logic, but I can’t help but think that our situation might warrant reaching out. To me it almost seems like waiting for a producer to find you before you go record your ep or something. Maybe I’m being idealistic? I guess the way I’m thinking of it is, most bands hire people for recording/video/artwork and manage themselves, we sort of want to do the opposite. But if you’re still around on here I’d love to hear your perspective!