Agent vs. Manager: Why the Confusion Is Costing Artists More Than Money
One of the most damaging misunderstandings in the entertainment industry isn’t about contracts, royalties, or percentages. It’s about roles.
Specifically: the difference between an agent and a manager—and how that distinction has been quietly blurred in ways that hurt artists creatively, financially, and culturally.
If you’re an artist, here’s the truth you deserve to hear clearly: Your agent is supposed to get you work. Your manager is supposed to build your life, career, and impact.
When those roles collapse into one another, artists lose the very thing they need most: perspective.
The agent’s job is simple (and narrow)
At its core, an agent’s role is transactional and industry-specific. An agent:
Submits you for roles, deals, or opportunities
Negotiates contracts within a defined industry (film, TV, music, publishing, sports, etc.)
Works on commission—traditionally capped at 10%
Is regulated and licensed in many jurisdictions
Is paid only when you get work
Agents are not strategists. They are not brand architects. They are not life planners. Agents are specialists whose value lies in access, relationships, and deal execution inside a specific vertical. And that’s exactly why agents remain essential.
Where things went wrong: managers filling the agent role
Historically, many managers stepped into the agent’s lane—not because it served artists better, but because it served the business model.
Agents are subject to licensing requirements and their commissions are capped at typically 10%. Managers, on the other hand, are not licensed the same way and can charge higher fees (typically 15–20%). So instead of focusing on long-term career architecture, many managers began procuring work, negotiating deals, acting like unlicensed agents, and focusing on transactions instead of trajectory.
The result? Artists paying higher fees for short-term deal making, while no one is truly accountable for career coherence, brand alignment, purpose, long-term leverage, or cultural impact.
The artists are to blame too
Let’s not put all of the blame on managers—artists are part of the problem too.
Many artists, especially early in their careers, force managers to act like agents by leading with anxiety instead of intention. The pressure to make money—often driven by real financial fear—causes artists to prioritize “getting work” over building a plan. When an artist shows up asking, What can you get me right now? instead of Where am I going and why?, the manager is pushed into a transactional role by default. Strategy takes a back seat to scrambling for opportunities, and short-term income becomes the proxy for success. The irony is that this mindset often delays the very stability artists are chasing. Without a clear strategy, purpose, and long-term vision, work comes sporadically, leverage stays low, and managers are reduced to chasing approvals instead of building careers. Artists who want strategic managers must first be willing to think strategically themselves and realize that a manager’s job is not to get the artist work—it is to make sure the artist gets the right work that furthers their purpose and provides for long-term sustainability.
The true role of a manager (as it was always meant to be)
A real manager is not a deal chaser. A real manager is a strategist, architect, and steward of an artist’s life and work. The manager’s job is to:
Help define the artist’s identity, voice, and purpose
Design a career roadmap, not just the next job
Decide what not to do, not just what pays
Align creative expression with long-term goals
Coordinate agents, lawyers, business managers, and advisors
Protect the artist from being fragmented, diluted, or misused
In other words: Agents monetize opportunities. Managers make sure those opportunities are right for the artist and mean something. Unlike agents, managers need to be able to tell artists when not to accept an opportunity.
Why the old model no longer works
The traditional industry model assumed an artist was on one primary industry, with one main revenue stream, and one ladder to climb. For example, if you were a musician, you wanted a manager to help you get a record deal, which would pay you millions of dollars. That world no longer exists.
Today, artists exist across industry verticals and live at the intersection of entertainment, media, branding, entrepreneurship, technology, and culture. In this environment, a manager who only thinks in terms of deals, percentages, and single industry verticals is no longer enough—and may actually be holding the artist back.
The role of the modern manager
In today’s creative economy, a manager can no longer operate inside a single lane or industry silo. The role has evolved beyond booking deals or negotiating contracts. A modern manager must sit above the industries themselves, alongside the artist, helping translate the artist’s creativity and purpose into opportunities across multiple verticals at once.
That means understanding how creative output connects to brand equity, how audience growth fuels ownership and IP, how partnerships and platforms expand reach, and how all of it fits into a long-term strategy for diversified, sustainable income. The work isn’t about chasing the next deal—it’s about designing a system that creates optionality.
A holistic manager helps an artist see where their creativity naturally wants to live beyond its original medium, and then builds commercial pathways within those aligned verticals—brands, collaborations, partnerships, platforms—that amplify the artist’s purpose rather than dilute it. Once those pathways are identified, the manager’s job is not to do everything themselves, but to assemble and coordinate the right experts in each space to execute.
In this sense, the modern manager is a manager of managers, a manager of agents—someone who holds the big picture, protects the artist’s creative center, and orchestrates the ecosystem around it. The result is not just more income in the short term, but more leverage, more control, and a career that moves toward true financial freedom without sacrificing creative integrity or personal sustainability.
Why agents still matter (and always will)
None of this diminishes the role of agents. In fact, it clarifies it. Industry-specific agents are still essential to:
Generate industry-specific revenue
Navigate union and guild ecosystems
Access institutional opportunities
Maximize value within a defined market
But agents should operate within a broader strategy, not define it. The best outcomes happen when agents focus on deal execution and managers focus on life and career architecture. This way, the artist is not forced to choose between money and meaning.
Impact is the missing metric
True artists are not in it for the money. So, success should not be measured in income—it should be measured in impact.
A holistic management approach doesn’t just increase earning potential. It ensures that the artist’s creative expression reaches the widest, most diverse audience and aligns with their purpose. Managers need to protect artists from getting burned out, boxed in, or commoditized. Because in the end, an artist’s cultural contribution outlives any single deal.
That’s how artists build real legacies.
