As a manager , Chausse says he learned the immense importance of intellectual property agreements . “ If I ’ m building a brand or band , it ’ s understanding what I should be negotiating for intellectual property , because I am building that with that artist . So if we ’ re pulling them out of a garage and they ’ re going to have a career for 10 or 15 years , making sure you understand and have a plan and , shall we say , a business agreement as to what everything is and how all the intellectual property is related back to me as a manager . At the end of the day , I ’ m a business partner with [ my acts ], not just a manager , and management in this day and age is very , very different than it was 20 or 30 years ago ,” he says , noting that the old model of the manager getting a 15 per cent commission doesn ’ t work in the era of streaming micro-payments . “ What if all of a sudden you get that song that 10 years later ends up in a Dentyne commercial or something and that ’ s the band that you found in a garage in Oakville , Ontario 10 years ago ? Do you have a piece of that ?”
“ One thing they really broke down off the bat , especially as a manager , is that a lot of the things we ’ re doing as managers are basically things labels used to do ,” adds Colin McTaggart , an artist manager with Amelia Artists representing electronic duo The Funk Hunters , punk band No Liars , and singer-songwriter Luca Fugale . “ Especially with independent artists , we are wearing a lot of hats , and how can we manage that more effectively in what we ’ re doing ?”
As a mentor in the Phoenix program , Terry McBride , co-founder of Nettwerk Music Group and one of the most respected artist managers in Canada , was adamant that managers , labels , and artists need to pursue markets outside of Canada and that data analytics ( from Spotify , Shazam , YouTube , etc .) now provide the tools to do that smartly . Using Harpoonist as an example again , Wattie says streaming data has offered a wealth of useful information .
“ Using these analytics has given us a really great [ understanding ] of where their audiences are , which is not what we assumed it was . That is really strange . For example , I made the assumption , a kind of loose assumption , that I wasn ’ t sure how well they would do in France ,” Wattie says , “ and it shows exactly how wrong I have been .” Since November , after completing Phoenix , Wattie ’ s team at Tonic Records has been using analytics to target the band ’ s online presence , which has quadrupled their YouTube views in four months . Amazingly , 50 per cent of that growth came from France . “ It ’ s good to know that I can look at that and not base it on my assumptions or what I think their audience is or where their audience is .”
The other key takeaway that Chausse , Wattie , and McTaggart stress is the importance of financial modelling . Unlike simple accounting , which is about the past , financial modelling is about planning for the future and using projections to work backwards from a defined goal .
“ From that moment , and it was only two-and-a-half months ago , I immediately made changes . Like instant changes to how we track our finances , how we are projecting for the future , and how our artists are projecting for the future ,” says Wattie . “ In fact , my goal is we ’ re all going to sit down and do this financial modelling together . I have almost all the data together that we need to put in there to do it and I think it ’ ll make a huge difference for all our artists , including the developing artists . It just gives us those tools to realize either what we need to cover if we want to reach some certain goals versus , not winging it , but to a certain degree we have had those goals but at the same time been winging it more than I realized we needed to .”
The faculty & participants of the 2017 Phoenix program
Across Canada , millions are spent each year to educate and support music artists . That is fantastic , and MIAs should continue to advocate for artist support programs and funds . But it could also be in vain if the industry around the artists isn ’ t giving them the best chance for success . That ’ s what Phoenix , or any intensive programs targeted at mid-level music industry professionals , could help with .
“ I lobbied hard to bring this to Canada and I believe the Canadian music business could really benefit from it ,” says McBride as we end our conversation . “ I have nothing to gain by doing this other than an understanding that this could give Canadian artists the opportunity to have long-term success and I think that is a good thing .”
Applications for the 2018 edition of Phoenix are being accepted from March 1st through April 3rd . Full details are available at www . musicbc . org .
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor of Canadian Musician
WWW . CANADIANMUSICIAN . COM CANADIAN MUSICIAN • 11