 Building on your team is a crucial part of getting your music out in the world. While there's tons you can do yourself, another head can often be better than one. A manager who has the time to take care of things so you can focus on creating storytelling and not balancing the bank account can be an amazing lift to your creative productivity and focus. But my God, when I talk to so many musicians, I literally turn into this emoji when they talk about getting a manager. So in this video, I'm gonna talk to you about how you attract a manager for your music. I'm Jesse Cannon, a music marketing nerd who's teaching musicians how to go from zero to 10,000 fans. And this is Muse Formation. So you want a manager, huh? Well, what you all seem to tell me in the comments is that you appreciate that this channel is no bullshit. So I'm not gonna lie to you like the rest of these channels and sugarcoat this with some stupid list of things you can do to get a manager to snap, bro. Because instead I wanna talk about what I've actually seen in real life, which is my career. I've been lucky enough to interview hundreds upon hundreds of successful artists about how they got to where they are today. I wanna talk about the most common ways that are replicable to get a manager. But first, we need to talk about the lay of the land here on getting a manager since so many musicians make huge mistakes with this. The worst thing you can do for your music is to get an inexperienced manager who claims to be doing things and isn't actually handling anything, except for sliding into QD's DMs, claiming they're a big time manager. The reason this is so bad is you will assume you're making progress and things are getting done when they are not. If you listen to interviews with musicians who had tons of buzz and potential that ended up going nowhere, the number one thing they will cite is that they trusted a manager or that their label was doing things when they weren't and progress ceased to happen when they thought it was. So when I'm talking about a manager here, I'm not talking about someone who's never managed anyone successful. You know, the person you meet and hang out with at the bar and tells you they know how to run an Excel spreadsheet and have met a producer once, so what else could there be to the job? I'm talking about an experienced manager with a roster of artists who are doing real shit and this manager's breaking acts. I'm also not talking about the person who managed a successful group in the 90s who doesn't get the music business of today at all. Since all that has a ticket to you not getting anywhere. I also don't find it helpful to talk about your friend who actually is a talented hustler and is gonna manage you since the music business is filled with tons of major players who started out as those. And if your friend is an amazing manager and hustler, well, you know how to get their attention already, so I don't really need to talk about that in this video and there's nothing wrong with that. Let's instead talk about how you attract a manager that is established since that's what people are curious about. So you may have noticed a detail in what I've been talking about this video and what I just said is I wanna talk about how you actually attract managers or for that matter, booking agents or A&R. Now while those have some specific traits that are a little bit different and we're gonna focus on managers, a lot of this is relatively the same. The reason I use that term attract is since so many people miss that if you are begging a manager who's big, you're probably not gonna be worth managing and even if they do pick you up, they're never gonna do any work for you and just keep you on a back burner unless you yourself are doing all the movement. The fact is doing things that get managers' eyes to you instead of trying to hack this by thinking you can beg or cold email your way there is not the move, chief. If you talk to anyone who works in the real system in the music business or listen to interviews, you'll hear countless stories of how someone got signed to a big label or a big management company but was left on the back burner. So I wanna discuss how that doesn't happen to you which is all about attraction. And since we're talking about attraction, I wanna remind everyone that memes at their core are devices to explain the world to one another. They're a way of explaining concepts in an entertaining way that translates and what meme is more synonymous with the word attraction than the classic. The goat, the motherfucking greatest, the goddamn Mona Lisa of memes, the virgin versus the Chad walk. Come on, put some respect on this masterpiece. Okay, so let's talk about the most common way an artist ends up on the roster of a great manager which is either someone who works with a manager like a producer or a director or even more commonly, one of the artists on their roster, that person introduces the artist to the manager and they get on their radar and as they see they are making moves, they pick them up and making moves, that's the crucial detail to focus on here. I know you heard how you make things through connections but the making moves is the real detail here. I've never said yes to any artist who asked me to manage them the first five times they asked. Note, when I manage bands, I no longer do that so please stay out of the DMs. It's already enough that people keep DMing me and asking me how I get these lights to look like this on these YouTube videos and the answer is way too damn much money on Phillips Hughes. Anyway, the reason I wouldn't say yes to them at first is I wanted to give them free advice on what they should be doing since that's basically what a manager does with the fee and I would watch and use this as a trial before committing to working with them and making sure that they're gonna go out there and make smart moves and hustle and listen to me. You know, that's kind of smart before signing some paper and getting into a working relationship with them that I don't know whether it's gonna work out or not. So let's break this down. The Virgin Cold Rights Manager's nonstop whereas the Chad asks his friends who have managers if they can introduce them to the manager and get on their radar. Let's remember a crucial detail if you get intro to that manager. The odds are that they're not gonna sign you even if you have the most bangin' track of all time. That's not gonna happen on day one. It's dead there to keep an eye on you and make sure you're making moves and doing smart things and making progress since they don't wanna babysit you. One of the things I always say about successful people in the music business is the last thing they wanna do is work with a law ship full of people panicked who are clueless about how to get ashore. That's serious virgin energy when someone says they have no idea what to do to promote themselves and they just need someone to help. Instead, the Chad energy that attracts a manager is showing you have a clue and that manager will be joining a pirate ship that is fun and knows it's looking for its next adventure. They wanna see people who will be a part of a team and will help lead the way which they can help and be an equal to not babysit and have to hold your hand through everything. So what that means is after you're on the radar of a manager you better not wait six months between singles and then disappear again right after you promote that single for a week or two. You need to be using consistent sustained promotion since that's exactly what builds a fan base as well as what managers wanna see. Since as they see you're working hard and capturing attention and building a fan base that makes them excited. And if you don't know what I'm talking about I have a playlist of how to get people to notice your music on the screen right now that's also linked in the comments. But sustaining attention and doing big moves also has another benefit which brings us to the next crucial piece of the puzzle is the second most common way a manager finds an artist today is they talk to tons of people. I mean, let's be real here. A manager's job is to talk to people all day and make connections. And a lot of the time that's talking to people about who's starting to get a buzz and who's killing it in their scene or micro genre. And one of the ways that happens is by talking to what have been called scouts. But I tend to find those are just often the young movers and shakers in the scene. These are the people who have their ear to the ground. If you're making good music and capitalizing on consistent sustained promotion and getting a buzz among early adopters and when I say early adopters I don't mean like when Angelina Jolie adopted all those kids for a while. I mean instead people who are scouring SoundCloud and Bandcamp and blogs looking for the new artists who are doing cool shit. These are the people who are hungry to hear every cool act before everyone else does. They're watching the music acts that get on smaller playlists and get fans talking and are commanding attention. And that right there is another reason why I talk about why consistent sustained promotion is so damn important. And it's why I shove it down your throat in every goddamn video I seemingly make. It keeps you getting noticed and on the top of the mind of these movers and shakers. And that's how your name's up in their mouth on these calls. And the third way a manager finds you is to get on those viral music charts or trending on charts or showing up on a big playlist. But I don't feel like we need to get into that too much here since we've discussed how you do that so much in my videos on Spotify which are linked on the screen or in the description right now. Okay, so let's say you're the goddamn chat of chats and your sick jawline of a musical existence has gotten through the door to this manager's office. What now? Now I told you before they are probably not gonna sign you on the spot but you increase the chances of getting signed immensely if you do a few things. Like I said before, the Virgin talks about how they need help whereas the Chad will show up at that meeting and they will explain why what they are doing is going to work. Think of it this way. Famously when Trent Reznor had nothing but a demo tape he walked into TVT Records office and showed them a bar graph laid in presentation of why he was gonna be one of the biggest artists of the next few decades and sure enough that buff chiseled goth Chad was right. But you may be thinking, you only say the music industry is totally different than it was then. What the hell gives chief? Hey there. I appreciate the chief in that sentence since it implies my dominance, my Chad status in this conversation. Okay, yeah. The music business has changed a lot since Trent did this but sometimes change shifts more towards something than against it. When old Trent did this the music business was barely data driven but today it's everything these nerds who you're trying to get signed by are looking at. So what I'm telling you to do here is you guys should have some sort of data point you can point to. Since every suit in the music business now looks at data the way Ivanka looks at the Canadian Prime Minister in this picture after getting it from this dork for years. So try to find some data that shows growth and explain it to them. Even if it isn't that significant and the number isn't big as long as it shows growth it shows you get the game and are conscious of understanding it and can explain to them that with their help all it will do is grow even more. But just be sure to vet this is the most exciting thing you could show them data wise. Since I want to remind you of a concept we discussed in my video on how to write a successful Spotify playlist pitch which of course is linked now or in the description below. And what I discussed that video does not only apply to Spotify playlist pitches but anytime you meet someone in the business knowing how to tell them something about your music that gets them excited is the most crucial skill in getting doors open for you in the music business. And literally if you talk to anyone who works in pitches and marketing with big artists they will tell you this that after you have good music this is one of the most crucial skills you have to get through doors. So spending as much time as you have to get that down is one of the most effective things you can do with your time. And while I'm not going to go over the details of that here again since I will never say it that well again hit the books or the links to my videos. But let's talk about what the Virgin does as they come to the meeting and talk about needing help. Whereas a Chad says you better get on board otherwise you're going to miss out. Since if you look at the data I brought here I'm about to pop off and they explain exactly what's exciting about them. Whereas the Virgin just says well we have fun playing music together. And I should say you don't always need the craziest story. I don't mean something as crazy as being a polka band that dresses in costumes that look like slipknot. You just have to know what makes you special and be able to tell others in a way that gets them excited. It can even just be selling something that isn't that exciting really well. Do you make bangers that make Cardi B sound like music? Well that sounds pretty exciting. You need to be able to describe that in a compelling way. Okay well we have another detail here. It's not just your initial meetup you should tell these managers about what you were doing in the data points. One of the biggest mistakes musicians make is when they don't get a contract at that first meeting or after a few talks they give up and get trauma induced by the time that person wouldn't go to the dance with them and rejected them. This isn't rejection it's just that you got to show you're worthy of opportunities. You need to show you're dedicated since that's a quality many managers are looking for especially in this world of people who don't care if they get famous by being a fit influencer, rapper or YouTuber. They just want fame and that's not impressive to a music manager since they are in the music game not the Fatami Tea game. So let's break it down one last time in mean form. Virgins don't follow up and Chad send out updates to everyone in the business every time they have a new milestone to brag about. The Chad points to the data on their progress and every single time they have an eventful milestone in their career they send a personal email to each and every potential team member, manager, A&R or whoever and tell them about their progress till they have a full team. And if you want to hear more about this practice I cannot recommend a better real world example than my podcast with the artist Barty Strange who has had an insane glow up in the last year and we did a whole podcast about everything he did to get there. And of course that's linked on the screen now or in the description below. Trap things up. Remember when we talked about attracting a manager? All of these things make you more attractive just like the Chad. The key here is to do all of these attractive things and it will help get doors open for you. Okay, so I'm gonna do a second part to this video where I more explicitly go through some of the things you need to do to impress people in the music business. So be sure to hit me in the comments of whatever you're wondering about and whatever else I might wanna cover on this channel. And if I already made that part two of this video it's gonna probably be linked on the screen right now. Otherwise on the screen right now is a playlist of a ton of videos on how to go from zero to 10,000 fans as well as one on how to blow up on Spotify in 2021. If this video was helpful please say thanks by giving it a thumbs up and leaving a comment below and giving me a subscribe and be sure to get notified since we're gonna be talking about these same things in future videos. Thanks so much for watching.