Month 7 - Product and Artist Management - "The Business of Managing Others"

Britney Spears and her Manager

Class Reflection

Product and Artist Management was another favorite class that I had during the program. It was a great class because it made me realize that talent management is one of the things I might want to do as a career in the entertainment industry. For this class we had to do a leadership project where we had go out into the community and search-out a bonafide artist manager or product manager (someone who is earning a living in these fields), interview the manager with questions appropriate to the topic, and then submit a multimedia presentation detailing important aspects of management that will serve as valuable lessons for us all. However, due to such a busy with school, work and my internships, I wasn’t able to schedule an interview with a manager. So instead of interviewing a manager I asked the instructor if it was ok to interview the agent that I worked with, April Tombs, because agents are one of the closest people that mangers work with. In addition, April, as an agent can provide me insights of her experience dealing with the different types of managers. After pitching the idea, the instructor agreed and I was able to interview April Tombs.

The reason why I chose April Tombs is because she is a successful brand and talent agent in ICM and has a lot of experience with dealing with talent managers. Her experience at ICM will allow me to get insight on how it’s like to work with talent managers from an agent’s perspective. She is the perfect person to interview because of her experience in the industry. She has worked with many celebrity clients, which include, Audrina Patridge from MTV’s hit show “The Hills,” Dianna Agron from “Glee,” Beyonce and Megan Fox. Past projects she worked on are as followed:

Beyonce’s world concert tour called “I Am…” in 2009

Megan Fox’s Armani campaign.

Audrina Patridge clothing brand projects.

Dianna Agron’s “U” by Kotex campaign.

In doing the interview with April, I learned that talent agents are people that work closely with artist managers. That both the manager and agent are key people to making an artist’s career successful in the entertainment industry. In addition to that, I learned that agents find jobs for the artist while managers guide their careers and give them advice. Last but not least, I learned that there is a gray area between the manager and agent where they sometimes have to do each other’s duties. Like for example, sometimes a manager finds an artist a job and asks the agent to do the negotiating. Another example is when an agent handles all the travel booking for artists when in reality it’s the manager’s job.

The interview also made me realized that being a talent agent and artist manager can be both very challenging jobs. It made me realize that both requires so brain power in order to do because it incorporates so much skills. Not only do you have to deal with different people but you also need to multi task and manage multiple clients at a time. It made me realize that both jobs are very demanding jobs that occupy a lot of time because of the workload. However, their also jobs that are satisfying and allows you to work with different kinds of people each day.

All in all, the class was very informative and I was able to learn a lot about talent management. Likewise, the class sparked my interest in talent management because of the challenges the job brings. The reason why I am interested in doing it is because of the fact that I like the idea of helping an artist become successful by guiding their careers. I feel that I can totally do the job because of my knowledge and experience in working with agents, publicists and producers here in Los Angeles. In working with these people I have gained valuable skills such as my ability to multi task, be organize, and network that will help me in become a good artist manager.

Leadership 5

The other internship I got besides the one from ICM was from the Anderson Public Relations Group internship. The Anderson Group is a Public Relations firm is owned by Liza Anderson and is a well known public relations group known for their clients such as Eva Longoria, Michael Emerson, Ashley Bell and Kari Matchett. They are basically a firm that handles the image and publicity of clients. As an intern there I helped them pitch clients to magazines and other entertainment media outlets, help publicist’s assistants, and write client bios. In addition to that, I also was one of the interns who trained the new interns. I was put in that position because they felt that they could trust me to train new interns. As one of the intern trainers, I helped and showed the new interns how to pitch clients to different entertainment mediums, do pitch and secure, write client bios and use the different programs that publicist use such as Cision, Bacons, and Outlook. Moreover, I was the to go to person every time interns have questions. This internship was a great opportunity because it allowed me to learn about public relations and the role of publicist in an actor’s career. At the same time it allowed me to lead others and teach them the ins and outs of public relations.