The Demanding Lifestyle of an Artist Manager

Equator Music principals Mathieu Drouin and Francoise de Grand talk about the lifestyle of an artist manager and advise novice managers on how to balance for themselves the competing demands of business, art, and life. I love hearing testimonials of other fellow managers around the world. As a growing artist manager myself I face a new challenge everday with my artists. It is a very demanding role to live up to. An artist manager has many people relying on them to get things done. Artist need a manager just as much as a manager needs his/her artist(s). As I get deeper and deeper into the business I feel like Im becoming more aware of the complexity of the business as well as the demanding lifestyle it exceeds. It truly is a way of life that you decide take. It is not the normal nine to five job. You clock in and clock out, answer to a boss, etc. No, you are the boss of your career. You have to learn how to harmoniously balance your life in such a way that you  can manage you artists, your business deals, and your own life all at the same time without losing all your marbles in the process.
After starting out in the industry as a sub-agent working as an executive assistant to an artist manager  and now growing to be an artist manager myself, I can truly say that the people around you unless in the same industry of work will never to truly grasp and comprehend the demand, liability, and responsibility that comes with the role of being an artist manager. You are on call twenty four hours, seven days a week, all year round. The lieason never sleeps. You have to always be accessible to your artists. Because the role of artist manager is such a huge under taking, artist will have specialized managers to handle different responsibilities. In this way helping to lighten the load on the personal manager of the artist. I have artist that I manager personally but at the same time I have others that I am solely their business manager, or tour manager. In the beginning you will be doing mostly everything yourself unless you have the financial backing to hire people to create a team. However eventually you'll have your team to make each event and experience a success. If you the artist don't have a manager be wise in who you choose at the same time if you  do have a good manager do not take them for granted because if you've known your manager for a long time and you trust them, you know they are one of your biggest supporters. They believe in you and being a manager is what they do for a living, how they put bread on the table, you the artist are their job and career choice.

I know that being an artist manager is what I want to do for the rest of my life as a career. It is my passion and I live for it. And Im proud to be the manager of my artists.