NEWS : Okyeame Kwame advices artiste managers on avoiding breakups

Okyeame Kwame has word for artiste managers. He says..

If you are a manager, I can admit signing a contract with especially an up-and-coming artiste is difficult as many of such ‘freshers’ are enrolled ‘philanthropically’.

You want to extend a hand of ‘help’ to a young eager and enthusiastic young man (or woman) and sometimes you would not be able to tell his full prospects, until you are taken by surprise when he makes a hit!

By this time, you are likely to start competing with other ‘managers’ before you can gain his attention and get him committed. And so, to avoid that, get things on paper now; no matter how ‘shallow’ the paperwork could be from beginning, and fine tune it as you move along.

1.      Success and its demands

Every success chalked in one’s musical career brings more responsibilities on all stakeholders. As a manger, you should understand that the artiste you don’t ‘regard’ today could become your ‘lifeline’ someday to come, hence the need to acknowledge the stage where you need to accord him with the necessary ‘respect’, while you expect same from him/her.

Hammer of last 2 once said that, “Ayigbe Edem use to hold my [Hammer] bag when he [Edem] started working with me. But I [Hammer] began to hold Edem’s bag when he [Edem] became a hit”

The tides do turn, and must be so acknowledged when it happens.

Before Sarkodie would own his own car, Dr Duncan had to give out his [Duncan] only car to Sarkodie to appear at certain places. All these goes to tell stakeholders in our industry to acknowledge the changes and adjust as such.

2. Synergy

A manager and his artiste must share a common purpose and goal. The artiste must feel confident, being under the ‘care’ of the manager.

It happened once in 1999 in Washington D.C at a time when Akyeame were to perform at the Constitution Hall.

The organizers despitefully sent all of us into a single hotel room much to our displeasure. They failed in honoring several promises. This made our then manager Earl Ankrah (now at Fair Wages) shed tears, because he felt he had failed us.

Earl made sure the organizers re-negotiated the terms of engagement much to our satisfaction. At that point, we all supported him since we were confident that he had our welfare at stake.

3.     Branding

I might not be able to fully digest the issue of branding in this write-up, but need to touch on the need to brand your artiste, as a manager.

According to businessdictionary.com “Branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers”

Effective branding is therefore important in establishing your artiste in the minds of the publics, in a distinctive manner. Such requires a team to effectively deliver. However, some managers tend to act as jack of all trades; a one stop shop.

Research (Branding)

The manager handles as much as graphic designing, production, promotion, media engagements, PR, all by himself. Delivery in such an instance is billed for failure! Managers should learn not to promise ‘too much’.

One key thing in branding is research. Managers should conduct extensive research to identify how the artiste is perceived in the public eye. Its not enough to think within your small boundary that your artiste is ‘good’.

Get to know how the public feel and thinks about him/her. Find out how your artiste can make a difference in the cluster!

Accounts of key stakeholders such as Event organizers should be sought and factored into your branding strategy.  The corporate sector ‘perception’ about your artiste must be factored in your planning too.

4.     Funding

Every manager seeking to release a single or album, should as a matter of business importance, have a minimum of 20 percent of the total expected  profit be invested into the release.

The idea of just releasing a single and leaving it to social media to ‘promote’ it cannot assure you success! If you are an artiste or a manager and you don’t have a marketing budget, then you have a very expensive hobby!

The manager should also be able to monetize the advertising campaign in order to bring appreciable revenue to the artiste.

Some managers, I must say, are good at marketing, but poor at sales. This therefore calls for capacity building on the part of some managers and even some artiste.

5.     International interface

It is important for every manager to create international linkages for his artiste. It’s important to implement what i would refer to as Globcal concept i.e. “Think Global, Act Local”.

To use myself as an example, I have a manager who handles all my transactions whenever I have some business in any Francophone country here in Africa.

Similarly, I have a manager in South Africa and other countries including the US and elsewhere who provides me with the ‘international interface’ my career requires.

6.     Communication; Non-Disclosure

Some managers have fallen victim to the system of ‘little or no disclosure’. For whatever the reasons for breakups could be, many of the ‘genuine issues’ could have been averted if some transactional details had been ‘communicated’ to the artiste.

I am saying ‘genuine issues’ because I know some managers who will never unduly take any monies belonging to his artiste. An example of such awesome managers is Mark Okraku Mantey.

I single Mark out because I have worked with him before and I know his rich sort. Yet to think of some challenges he has had with artiste such as Lord Kenya, Daasebre Dwamena, Okuraseni Samuel had been, in my view, the lack of communication.

There are several instances where managers had made lots of genuine expenditure on artistes. Managers need to pay payola, arrange for shows, and several logistics that requires cash injection, several of which cannot be documented.

Many artistes have been baffled with supposed huge budgets purported to have been expended in promoting a song, without any prior or updated information. But it does so happen because the ‘plan’ was not shared!

In all of these instances, I can say confidently that no artiste can survive without a manager. I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Marketing Strategy, but it is impossible to do it all by myself. I indeed can’t survive without a management team!

I will urge all persons who have pursued marketing, sales, advertising administration, etc who are only seeking to gain employment in corporate organizations, should redirect their knowledge to support friends and relatives in the arts to build strong and formidable artiste brands.

This I believe will endear to the benefits of all and build a better entertainment industry that will further contribute to national development.

SOURCE http://enterghana.com