What is the difference between an agent and a manager?
How blurry does that line get?
This may seem obvious to people who work directly in the music industry, but it’s one of the most common points of confusion I come across.
The term ‘Agency’ can be very confusing because it has different meanings in different fields. An Ad Agency is different from a Creative Agency and neither of them look anything like a Talent Agency.
In the music business the answer is pretty straightforward.
A talent agent is someone who is legally licensed to procure employment for their clients. Historically, their sole job is finding work for artists, and in the case of musicians, that primarily means booking tours.
A manager, on the other hand, is a person who handles a wide-range of business roles for their clients including career guidance and business strategy amongst other things. It is, however, an unlicensed job with no registration required to become a manager. In some states (including New York, and California), managers are explicitly prohibited from procuring employment for their clients with the exception of record deals.
During the last 20 years or so the lines between these roles have started to blur.
On one hand, agents have expanded their purview beyond tour booking and now help artists with brand deals, private events, investments, and new technology opportunities, and often most importantly - opportunities outside their core field which may include acting, producing, and writing for film & TV. There was a time when talent agents were focused solely on live events, but with the growth of giant agencies like CAA, WME, and UTA, they can handle a plethora of opportunities.
Managers, however, don’t need to worry about being out of a job anytime soon. As agencies provide more opportunities, artists’ careers become more and more complex. As I wrote in the “What does a manager do?” section, managers are responsible for the various revenue streams and team members in the artists’ lives. So while agents may bring more opportunities, that often just means more to manage.
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