Barbara Trent

Back to English

English 111

Career Analysis

With so many different fields in the world of business management, it's hard to just settle down on one topic, if you are just now getting interested in that field. I have chosen the career path of entertainment, but not to perform for you but to be the one who runs the show, the band manager, or some say road manager.

For some reason being a road manager just sounds like fun, especially since I can't get enough of music. I want to be the one that helps make dreams come true; for me that's my dream. However, that road to my dream will not be an easy one.

To get started in that field, first I may want to try seeking out a school that offers music business as a major, like East Tennessee State University in Bristol Tennessee. If you cannot afford to go to a major college, you may want to just stay with majoring in business management. The thing with being a road manager is that "most managers got the job simply because their mates were in the band and they helped them find gigs in the early days before they were famous" (Waters). It also matters on who you know, and the connections you can get.

Some of the responsibilities of a Road Manager are "negotiating deal with record companies, networking with promoters and press officers, and keeping the artists happy" (Waters). They also run the tour, which includes wages, accommodations, and venues. During the tour "the manager reports back to the artists record company and presents them with the tours accounts at the end" (Waters).

Requirements for this job are to know accounting and budgets, and most importantly, "qualifications are often not as important as experience, attitude and contracts. Some managers were artists themselves or had worked in other areas of the record industry" (Waters). Some of the qualities that people look for in a road manager are organizational skills, commitment, and ability to communicate.

Now the most important information that most people want to know is the pay. "They normally get 20 percent of the commission on royalties" (Waters).

The general background of management is that it is a lot of common sense. A manager to his/her employees has to be three people all at once. They have to be the planner, the provider, and the protector. A manager has to have good leadership, people have got to know who to go to when something is wrong or there is a question that needs to be answered. Also a manager needs to be flexible, not just with time but also with the people and the surrounding environment. Things change and a good manager needs to deal with change easily.

Work Cited

Blair, Gerard M. "What Makes A Great Manager." The University of

Edinburgh. 20 November 2001

http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art9.html.

Waters, Sheri. "The Record Industry, Choosing A Career: Band Manager."

About.com 10 Oct. 2001

http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa053100d.htm?terms=Band+Manager