- So the first question is
what's the difference between an agent and a manager?
There's a big difference between agent and manager
in the commercial music world.
An agent is someone who procures work for a musician
for a percentage of the pay for that particular engagement.
A manager is a person who guides a career and gives advice,
and so on.
The distinction is great enough
that in the entertainment States,
California, New York, Tennessee,
that they actually have laws
preventing agents from doing manager work and vice versa
because there's an inherent conflict of interest.
Since a manager is paid
since an agent is paid
as a percentage of the fee for the engagement,
it's in their best interest to procure engagements
that have high fees, thus their percentage would be higher.
A manager is much more likely to pick an engagement
because of the repercussions on the musician's career.
The immediate money should not be as important
to that person.
So there is an inherent conflict of interest.
That conflict of interest carries into the art music world,
because most of the management companies
and indeed the solo managers in our field
tend to work as agents and managers.
Most art musicians confuse the two naturally
because they expect their manager
or their management to get them jobs,
and they think that that's their most important function
which it is, it's just a misnomer.
They're really working as agencies or agents.
Very rarely in the art music world
do we see people taking on the role of management
true management, where they're guiding a career,
and giving advice as to repertoire
and audience development and appearance and the like.