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Monday, May 30, 2011

Making Your Own Music-Agents Role

Making Your Own Music And The Role Of Your Bands Agent

Agents in the music business  are very different from agents in the film or sports business. While agents i sports and fil are the major power broker in the industry, controlling many imprtant aspects of it, agents in the music industry are involved exclusively in booking live shows, gigs and personal appearances. Music agents are sometimes involved in commercials, tour sponsorship, television specials, and other areas, but they don't participate in records and songwriting and thus are not big players in the way a film agents is. They are still viatally important.

Making Your Own Music Agent Fees

Because agents aren't involved in your recording or songwriting process with the exception of music in film, you or your band should never ever give the agent a piece of the income from these areas. The agents don't usually ask for a cut on film music.

Making Your Own Music Agent Unions

All agents are or should be regulated by unions like AFM (American Federation of Musicians) for musicians;
AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) for vocalists and taped or live television actors and actresses; SAG (Screen Actors Guild) for film; and Actors Equity for live stage actors. These unions put a cap on how much the agents can charge, namely 10% for personal appearences inder AFM. The unions regulation of agencies is called franchising, and unions only allow their members to be represented by "franchised" agents, meaning those who agree to the union's restrictions. One of these restrictions is that the agency can only use contracts approved by the union, which results in any union having its own pet form, spelling out the union's particular requirements. So your bands agents contract is a big one with lots of clauses and is what is called a "stack contract", which are specific content for the three federations mentioned earlier. Some agents will take 5% for artists and bands generating major revenues. This only applies to concerts. They stay at 10% for fim, TV, etc. Keep in mind that there can be a sliding scale, so that your income goes up, the percentage goes down.Born This Way (Special Edition).