An artist’s agent refers to the professional representative of an artist. They act formally on behalf of the artist by promoting, selling and negotiating contracts on behalf of their clients. Moreover, by law, they are charged with the protection of the artist’s ventures, image, and monetary gains. Most artist agents are engaged in representing artists in publicity deals or events, promoting the artist are sales and acting as a link between the artist with other artists, artist agents and other third parties within or outside their line of specialization. This role is very demanding and lucrative at the same time if the artist is popular hence the work may put pressure on the agent’s personal life or may lead to exorbitant unhealthy lifestyles. Therefore, when contracting an artist’s agent, one should avoid making the following mistakes;
Inexperienced agents
Some artists make the mistake of choosing the wrong agents to represent them, particularly when cases of emotions get in the way of reason. Some artists contract their relatives or friends as their agents which are a huge mistake if they are inexperienced or lack the right exposure or talent in the field. Artists should understand that the best agent enhances and promotes their brand into the right platforms which translate to the revenue generated. Therefore, having professional experts as agents, one enjoys the respect of the industry players as the agent stands their ground and negotiates professionally to ensure that their clients have the right publicity and recognition that fits and promotes their talents.
Lack a business model
Most artist agents act as artist managers. Hence, in most circumstances, these agents may just handle the artist’s work from intuition rather than from a business perspective. Therefore, agents that lack the proper business model for the artist’s work fail to set the artist on the path to success leading to failure or under-recognized dreams. Moreover, the agent should be in a position to get the artist into platforms in good time, meet deadlines, make a valuation of business proposals and communicate the proper access to the artist.
Lack concern with the artist’s development
Some artist’s agents are selfish and only mind about their material gain of the deals made. Hence, they fail to monitor or advance the career interests of their clients. This may see the artists sign bad contracts, sign away copyrights, lead careless lifestyles, lack proper financial management or even lack elaborate communication platforms such as a website. Hence, this kind of agents should be avoided.
Costs involved
Artists have a sense of pride and feel that they deserve the premium services or popular people around them as agents. While this has great benefits, it may fall short especially where fees sought are higher than what these agents can close down as business deals. This eats into the revenue generated resulting in losses.
