Music managers are paid by commission, typically 15 to 20 percent of the income they help generate, with 20 percent the most common number. There is no upfront cost: a legitimate manager earns nothing until the client does. What the percentage applies to, and for how long after the relationship ends, matters more than the number itself.
The Standard Commission
Management is a commission business. The industry range is 15 to 20 percent, and the figure is set in the management agreement. A manager taking 20 percent of a career they helped triple is cheap; a manager taking 15 percent of work you were already getting on your own is expensive. The percentage only means something next to what the manager actually adds.
Gross vs Net, and What Gets Carved Out
The words after the percentage are where the real negotiation happens. Commission on gross income means the manager is paid off the top line before expenses. Commission on net means after defined costs come out. Most agreements land on gross with specific carve-outs, and the carve-outs are worth reading twice. Common exclusions: recording costs and advances that pass straight through to third parties, tour support, and money earmarked for other collaborators. If a $50,000 advance immediately pays $30,000 to a mixer and studio, the commission should apply to what you keep, not what touched your account.
How It Works for Producers and Songwriters
For producer and songwriter clients, commission typically applies to producer fees and advances, royalty income including backend points, and publishing income the manager's work generates. Two specifics worth getting in writing: whether the manager commissions publishing income from songs written before the relationship started, and whether royalties from placements the manager had no hand in are carved out. A manager who gets your letters of direction executed and your catalog paying is earning the percentage on that income. One who inherited a paying catalog and added nothing is not.
Commission After the Relationship Ends
Management agreements include a sunset clause: the manager keeps commissioning income from deals made during the term for some period after it ends, usually at a declining rate over two to five years. This is standard and fair in principle, since a placement secured in year two may not pay until year five. The negotiation is about the length and the taper, not whether it exists.
Red Flags
- Upfront fees. A manager who charges a monthly retainer to develop an unsigned artist is running a service business, not a management business. Consulting billed as consulting is fine. Management that costs money before it makes money is not management.
- Commission on everything forever. No carve-outs, no sunset taper, commission on income the manager had nothing to do with.
- No written agreement. A handshake feels friendly until the first real check arrives and the two of you remember different numbers.
So What Does a Manager Cost?
Nothing today, and 15 to 20 percent of a bigger tomorrow. That math only works when the manager genuinely grows the income they commission, which is why the honest first question is not what a manager costs but whether you have income and opportunities worth managing yet. We wrote an honest test for that in does a producer need a manager.