Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share insights, tips, and strategies for artist managers on how to navigate through the music business.

Ruiz’s Letter:

And we’re back.

Took a couple weeks off to celebrate my birthday and get a full reset. What a time to get back into the swing of things.

Last week, Coachella & Governor’s Ball announced their full line ups. With those announcements, I figured we deep dive into the world of live festival and touring. What better way to set it off than to have one of the brightest agents in the game give us some insights.

This week, we’re excited to have Eli Gelernter, a dynamic and rapidly emerging agent from Wasserman, joining us in the “STRATEGY” section to share his approach for getting his acts on Coachella.

Eli represents artists such as Tyla, RAYE, FLO (all featured on Coachella 2024 lineup), Kehlani, Natasha Bedingfield, Grace Jones, Marley Bleu, Wet Leg, UNA MIA and many other incredible acts. Simply put, Eli is a force.

Known for his fresh perspective and approach to the agency game, Eli is well-regarded and admired by many. His dedication and hard work for his clients make him a powerhouse within the music industry.

It’s an honour to have him provide his insight for TMP readers.

STRATEGY

By Eli Gelernter, Music Agent at Wasserman

How do I get my artist on Coachella?

How did you get your artists on Goldenvoice’s (Coachella buyer) radar?

Goldenvoice is a huge company with a lot of people that work there. That also means that you have a lot of people who can champion your client if you position them well. That was a huge strategy of mine when trying to land Coachella slots for my clients. I made sure that people inside the building were just as excited about the possibility of my client being on Coachella as I was! 

How significant is hard ticket sales when pitching the buyer? 

It is the only real data that buyers look at…with the rise of TikTok coming out of COVID, I have seen buyers get burned from booking a streaming sensation of an artist prior to having hard tickets. These promoters have learned their lesson and personally, I believe that they now focus on hard tickets even more so than before. 

How do you navigate and address the expectations of artists and artist managers when it comes to securing a slot at Coachella?

Depends on where artists are at in their careers… But for developing acts, if management believes that their artist is a career-artist, and not here for a moment and then gone the next, they are understanding of the Coachella mayhem… and how nuanced that the experience can be to get your artist on the festival. 

^Terminology:

^{Hard Ticket- An event to which tickets are sold to the general public and where final payment to the Headline Artist is directly related to how many tickets are sold. Typically, the main source of entertainment is the Artists' performance.}

^{Buyer- Also known as Talent or Entertainment Buyer; negotiates offers and artist contracts on behalf of an event. A buyer is to an event what an agent is to an artist. Often, the Promoter and the Buyer and the Purchaser are one and the same.}

PAY ATTENTION

Behind The Scenes at Coachella

With the most recent announcement of Coachella, this is a super interesting look at all the behind the scenes booking agencies/labels/managers responsible for getting talent a spot on the Coachella lineup.

HIGH LEVEL STATS:

-2/3rds of this year's lineup was booked by one of WME, CAA, Wass & UTA (the exact same figures as 2023).

-Wasserman has the highest share again this year but CAA & WME split the headliners.

-Unlike agencies, the management world is much more fragmented. The highest share is Three Six Zero with 4% (6 slots) followed by Red Light, Roc Nation & Jet with 4 slots.

-Universal Music Group led again this year increasing their share from 16% to 20%. Indie artists are still well over 50% of the lineup.

-Dance/EDM has the highest share again. Guitar driven genres come in second followed by Pop. Latin doubled this year from 5% last year. Hip Hop dropped from 13% last year to single figures.

Decoding The Stage: Live Music Terminology

Ever find yourself in the midst of live music jargon, wondering what terms like "soundcheck," or "front of house" really mean? I’ve been there. Plenty of times!

Pay attention to the language that defines the dynamic industry of live music by clicking through to the glossary provided by Bauer Entertainment Marketing website. They provide a very good break down that delves into the nuanced language of the live music industry, deciphering terms integral to the concert experience.

Grammy-Nominated Songwriters on ‘The Most Important Part of a Song’

First order of business. If you want to build a fanbase and audience to come see your artist you’ll need great songs. There are no short cuts around this.

This is a must-read for both artists and artist managers. The best songwriters in the world break down their approach to songwriting, the most important elements of the craft, and how they’ve skillfully navigated the industry in order to get to where they are now.

^{Note* This article may or may not be behind a paywall. So this may or may not be a pay wall climber HERE} 

INDUSTRY NEWS

2023 Year in Touring

Recapping 2023, let’s take a look at some of the highlights in touring, beginning with the two megastars..

One thing to note is that touring should start early in the artist’s career. There’s a lot to be learned about live performances and audience engagement that your artist will need to know about down the road. Putting on a great show is about more than just having great music. In addition, building a hard ticket & getting out in front of audiences is essential to build a real business.

Take a look at the numbers for the top tours of 2023 including genre, gender, age, venues & more.

Note - figures for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour have not yet been reported as it has not been completed yet.

Triller is Drowning in Legal & Financial Problems

Not the news we want to hear about a company that has had a massive impact on music discovery in the last few years.

In summary, Triller is looking to go public this year, but between inflated user numbers, lawsuits, and a huge dependency on music rights holders to make the platform work, they present a huge risk to any bank or investor even remotely interested in helping them out.

Spotify is FLOODED With Songs that Have Zero Plays

45 million songs are currently sitting on Spotify with zero streams. Insane. This is part of what prompted Spotify to update their payment policy, which now says that to earn money off of a song it needs to have been streamed at least 1,000 times in the last 12 months.

In the same breath, Sped up/ Slowed down versions of songs are causing issues for music rightsholders, meaning the original artists are often not getting compensated as they should be. This is putting a lot of pressure on all of the big streaming services to address this.

These are some things to be aware of for both artist managers and artists. The landscape and movement of money is changing increasingly quickly.

ON REPEAT.. 🔥

STREAM:
YouTube  | Apple Music

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Why Aren’t You Doing It If Coachella Headliner Tyler, The Creator Is?

nolabelsnecessary

View more on Instagram

There are two perspectives on this. You either think posting content at a regular cadence doesn’t work or does work. My perspective? When one of the biggest artists in the world speaks, I listen.

I can’t tell you how often I hear of content fatigue from artists and even managers. Unfortunately, that is a reality. It does happen. However, the other reality is that you are in the music business where marketing is everything and content is king. Fortunately, we have the mediums to control that content.

Be creative, refine your approach and have a vision not only for the trend of today, but for how you want to present yourself to the world years from now. This game is a marathon not a sprint.

Amber Grimes, one of the best music executives in the business today, gives solid info on how to efficiently create content, deploy targeted ads with a limited budget in this clip HERE.

CHECK THIS OUT..

The Best Music Industry Job Openings

Speaking of ROSTR, they have an industry job openings board. Have a look. Stay hungry. Stay open.

Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, a talent management agency with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Marley Bleu, and more. I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard, Canon, and the NBA.

Follow me on IG @mauroisruiz

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