What Your Artist Manager Wishes You Knew?

We think we can all agree that we don't envy an artist manager's to-do list. With no two days that look the same, juggling the creative, commercial, and personal needs of their artists while navigating contracts, rights, deadlines, and relationships across the industry, the life of an artist manager is anything but simple.

In this article we interviewed four artist managers to hear from their point of view the challenges they face, what they wish their partners understood, and how labels, publishers, and production music companies can work better with them every day.

Before we dive in, let’s meet our Artist Managers:

	Omar Marcelo Henao – Artist Manager and Owner of Mi Musica 360 from Columbia.
	Jasmin Gomez – Artist Manager and Founder of Lycanthrope Management from the United States.
	Mika Karhumaa – Artist Manager from Finland.  Author of The Art of Music Business Management - For Artists & Managers book - Music Business Management Lecturer at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences - Artist Manager at Hanna-Maaria Tuomela and Misha
	Ian Yap – Artist Manager and Sync Agent for independent artist May Blue from Australia.

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Core Role & Challenges

No two days in artist management look the same. Jasmin describes it simply: "You can have a full list of admin tasks to tackle, or it can be an entire day working directly with your artist discussing future planning, creative direction, or working through a personal challenge that's bleeding into the work. It's never really a boring day. The role requires a lot of travel, wearing different hats, and constantly connecting with different groups of professionals from booking agents and venue promoters to label A&Rs, publishers, and brand partners and knowing how to communicate effectively with each of them. You have to be fluent in multiple worlds at once, and that keeps you on your toes."

For Omar, the job is fundamentally one of translation: "I have to translate the artist's vision into business. And I have to translate the business back to the artists in a way that does not destroy their creative soul." That means asking uncomfortable questions others avoid — is this opportunity actually good? Are we ready for it? Who owns what? What are we giving away? "That is the job. It's not just about strategy or networking. It's making sure that the artist's career is not a pile of disconnected actions."

"Every morning, I identify the single most important agenda for that day, and I build everything else around that core priority." Mika Karhumaa

Mika approaches the day with a single guiding principle: "Every morning, I identify the single most important agenda for that day, and I build everything else around that core priority." In practice, that spans everything from local operations in the morning to monitoring the U.S. market as it activates in the evening, because as a European manager, time zones are part of the job. He also thinks carefully about ripple effects: "I treat every action as a pebble thrown into water—it has a primary outcome, but it also creates a range of secondary effects that might resonate in territories or audiences we didn't originally target."

For Ian, right now it's all hands on deck around sync. "A lot of my day to day hours has been organising and uploading [May's] catalog, organising alternate mixes and stems and updating metadata. Another big task has been researching shows to pitch to." It's granular, deliberate work, for example, cross-referencing what songs have already been synced to a show to make sure a pitch genuinely matches the vibe, and finding the right supervisor contact to suggest music they might actually benefit from knowing about. 

Balancing creative, commercial, and personal priorities is where the real complexity lives.

Omar puts it plainly: "Being an artist is both a business and an art form creator and that makes it difficult because the business of music doesn't operate like any other business since you have the artist being the creator and the emotional engine but also the product, the brand, and sometimes even the biggest risk to its own project — all at the same time!" Labels and publishers see a release, a deadline, a sync request, a campaign. Managers see everything behind it. The confidence, the fear, the money pressure, the creative insecurity, the blank page. "And on top of everything, many times, people send half an opportunity and expect a full decision! I mean what? Are they interested? Interested in what? What is the usage? What is the term? What territory? What rights? What fee?" The list goes on..and until those answers exist, a manager can't do their job. 

For Jasmin, working with bands adds another layer: "Some band members resist engaging with the business side of things because they believe their only job is to focus on the music and sometimes the commercial side can feel like it conflicts with their artistic identity." But the personal dimension is just as real and often underestimated. "Artists are human beings, and burnout, mental health, relationship issues, and personal life pressures don't stay neatly outside the studio door. Part of my job is being aware of when those things are affecting the work and knowing when to address them, whether that means slowing down a campaign, having a hard conversation, or just checking in as a person and not just a manager. You have to balance protecting your artist creatively and commercially while also making sure they're okay as a human being." 

"Artists are human beings, and burnout, mental health, relationship issues, and personal life pressures don't stay neatly outside the studio door [...]" Jasmin Gomez

Mika frames it as a recipe: "I am constantly asking what the right ingredients are and in what proportion they need to be combined to reach the desired outcome. If creative integrity, commercial viability, or personal alignment dominates too much, the balance shifts and the project suffers. My job is to ensure they coexist within a sustainable framework." What makes it genuinely hard is that the balance is never static, "The variables—new technologies, data, and market expectations—change constantly. There is an increasing pressure to react instantly, even when the long-term implications are not yet clear." What makes it easier is having a clear system and staying open to what the data is actually saying: "I've seen many times where the data tells a different story than what we initially expected. By combining structure, intuition, and timing, I can navigate the chaos."

So what actually makes the role unnecessarily difficult? Jasmin doesn't hesitate: "The number one thing that makes it unnecessarily difficult is when the artist refuses to cooperate or pull their own weight because they believe their only job is to create music. In my college days, I always heard music professors say that the artist manager's job is to 'babysit' the artist. But I think that infantilizing an artist that way and not setting collaborative expectations from the start creates a very tense push/pull dynamic that only hurts the artist's progression and career in the long run." The flip side is just as clear: "When an artist is a team player and the trust is there, a lot of amazing things can happen. The best working relationships I've had feel less like managing someone and more like co-piloting together toward a shared vision."

For Omar, the friction also comes from outside, from partners who don't send enough information. But he's quick to point out that the artist can be the problem too: "If they do not have the assets, the rights and IP strategy, the live show defined, a fan signal system, the emotional readiness, or the business structure to support the opportunity, then saying yes can hurt them. And that is something artists need to understand hopefully soon enough." 

The job is protecting artists from attractive distractions — not by asking "can we do this?" but "should we?"

Relationships & Collaboration

That brings us to what labels, publishers, and partners often misunderstand about the role. 

Omar wants one idea retired immediately: "The manager is not 'the person blocking access to the artist.' A good manager is not there to say no for sport. A good manager is there to make sure the artist does not say yes to something they do not understand or is not in their best interest. There is a huge difference." A lot of artists want opportunities before they understand the cost of them (syncs, brand deals, releases, playlisting) but many aren't ready. Their rights aren't clear. Their assets aren't ready. Their business structure doesn't exist. "So when a manager slows something down, there is no resistance. It is protection…protection of the artist, of the partner, of the relationship, and even protection of the opportunity itself." He also wants the workload to be better understood. "Independent managers are often doing like five jobs at once minimum. We are not sitting inside a machine with legal, marketing, rights admin, A&R, and operations departments behind us. Sometimes the manager is the strategy department, the translator, the organizer, the rights checker, the bad-news messenger, and the person trying to keep the artist sane. So I wish that if a partner wants to work well with managers, they respect the fact that we are not just forwarding messages. We are carrying the weight of the artist's whole direction."

"So when a manager slows something down, there is no resistance. It is protection…protection of the artist, of the partner, of the relationship, and even protection of the opportunity itself." Omar Marcelo Henao

Jasmin asks industry partners to keep one thing in perspective: "Without artists, there is no product, and there is no music industry." Many talented artists she's worked with have invested upwards of $20,000 in the production of their music and seen little to nothing in return. "For many artists, they love making music so much that the minimal return on investment feels worth it, at least for a while. But realistically, they can only sustain that for so long before they have to prioritize a 9-to-5 job just to pay the bills, and at that point, their career stalls or ends entirely." The companies that understand this, and adopt partnership models with more transparent royalty reporting, fair advance structures, and revenue splits that reflect the real cost of being an artist today, will be the ones that attract and retain the best talent long-term.

Mika highlights one thing partners often overlook, the value of the indirect, foundational work managers do. "A large part of my role is shaping the conditions for future success—creating momentum and 'scripting' impact long before it shows up in measurable numbers. This groundwork is what eventually allows larger opportunities to take root." For now, his artists operate fully independently, and he takes pride in that. But he's also a realist: "There comes a point in every growth story where doing it alone is no longer enough." What he's looking for isn't a partner to provide a new direction, it's alignment. "The ideal collaboration is one where the partner respects the organic groundwork already laid and knows how to assess it properly."

For Ian, who works with an artist that has remained fiercely independent, there's a more immediate frustration: "I've always wished music supervisors would be more willing to consider working with a sync agent that sent a cold email. I still am a professional and know what I'm doing and this can be seen in the way I organize May's catalog, metadata, contracts, etc."

When it comes to how partners can work more effectively day-to-day, the answer is consistent across all four managers: send better information, earlier. 

"If you are reaching out about an opportunity, do not make the manager investigate the entire thing like a detective," says Omar. "Send the actual brief. What is the project? Who is the end client? What is the use? What rights are needed? Is this master, publishing, sync, social, name and likeness, content, or something else? What is the term? What is the territory? What is the upfront fee or budget range? What is the deadline?" He also flags a structural problem that slows everything down: "I wish things were not all over the place. You have one file in Dropbox, one link in email, then an approval via WhatsApp or a contract in DM. A shared portal — a centralised system — becomes the source of truth. Managers do not need more noise."

Okay, cheeky Synchtank plug here, but it's rude not to..this is quite literally what we built our Core Platform and Artist Portal for. One centralised place for labels, libraries, and publishers to manage assets, metadata, rights, approvals, and communication. So managers get the brief, not the breadcrumbs. Anyway, enough about us, back to the managers! 

Jasmin echoes this directly: "When a publisher or label reaches out about an opportunity, coming prepared with the relevant data upfront makes a huge difference. Tell me the placement context, the fee, the term, the territory. Don't make me send five emails to get information that should have been in the first message." Beyond that, she values partners who understand and respect the artist's brand before bringing opportunities to the table: "The best experiences I've had working with partners came down to exactly that, fast and clear communication with genuine support. Not just when they needed something from us, but consistently throughout the relationship. That's what builds trust, and trust is what makes every future opportunity easier to navigate."

Mika describes a strong example of what great communication looks like in practice. When a sync agency secured a placement for one of his artists in a Hollywood film, receiving that information the moment it was licensed, even before it could be announced publicly, was crucial. "It allowed us to use that 'silent knowledge' to subtly pave the way for its eventual release. We had several months to prepare, position the narrative, and build the right conditions around the artist so that when the news finally broke, it landed with maximum impact. This is where communication shifts from being merely operational to being truly strategic." He also notes that responsibilities shouldn't be fixed in a rigid hierarchy, they should shift based on context: "When a label or publisher shares an opportunity early, it allows us to activate our side as well. Often, we may already have connections or contextual advantages that make it easier to move things forward."

When a label or publisher shares an opportunity early, it allows us to activate our side as well. Often, we may already have connections or contextual advantages that make it easier to move things forward." Mika Karhumaa

The best partnerships have a clear common thread. 

For Omar, it has nothing to do with whether a deal ultimately happens: "The best experiences are the ones where people are honest and organized. The best partners make you feel like they understand there is a real artist behind the file, behind the career. Real rights. Real people who made the music and real consequences if something is handled badly. A strong partner is not someone just trying to close a transaction anyhow but someone building trust. And trust comes from clean communication, fair expectations, and not wasting people's time."

Jasmin brings it back to basics: for her, the best experiences have always come down to fast and clear communication paired with genuine support, not transactional check-ins when something is needed, but a consistent presence throughout the relationship.

Ian's best working experience has been with May herself. "We both share in her vision of making Jazz more mainstream and updating its sound for the modern era. Her debut album Vanilla was an absolute standout. I was really shocked at what it achieved creatively and knowing that I helped her to make it happen (business wise) still gives me chills to this day."

Mika's most memorable partnership moment came early in his career, when a label owner took a chance on a bold pivot, reallocating an entire marketing budget to fund a 19-date European tour across 25 days instead. "Not only did they immediately support the pivot, but they also increased the budget and chose never to recoup those additional costs. The owner's encouraging words during that time are still fresh in my mind." That tour launched the artist internationally. "Real value in a partnership is created through the courage to pivot and provide genuine mentorship. When a partner is willing to allocate resources and invest beyond immediate recoupment expectations—or without requiring recoupment at all—they are not just funding a project; they are empowering a career."

Decision-Making & Strategy

Every manager evaluates opportunities differently, but the starting point is always the same: does this fit the artist right now? 

Omar runs through a specific set of questions: "Does this make sense for who the artist is? Does it respect the music? Does it respect the audience? Is the money fair for the use? Does it create leverage or just exposure? Can the artist actually deliver?" That last one matters more than people realise…"It makes no sense to headline a festival if all you're going to do is rehearse live and you don't have, at minimum, a fan capture and show fan behavior system in place." And he's sceptical of anything that impresses mainly because of its name: "Artists can be seduced by known names. A big company, a big brand, a big playlist, a big promise. But big does not always mean right. If the big opportunity builds nothing, it may not be a big opportunity but just big noise with a big name logo."

Jasmin uses data as a core part of evaluation, breaking things into categories; audience growth, endorsements, bookings, and sync, because success looks different depending on the category. "A sync deal might be a win for exposure even if the fee isn't massive. A booking might make sense even at a lower guarantee if it puts us in front of the right audience. Overall, we're always aiming for progression, not just a one-time payout."

Mika adds that sometimes the clearest path is stepping back entirely: "When facing a complex choice, it is effective to step into a third-person perspective: asking what the artist would want to happen next, or where the music itself wants to go." Intuition plays a major role alongside structure: "In today's environment, where there is more noise and information than ever before, the 'gut feeling' of knowing when to push and when to wait has become more valuable."

"If an opportunity is beneficial, like working creatively with a music supervisor to create a piece of visual media which May's music lifts emotionally, then it's a no brainer." Ian Yap

For Ian and May, the filter is clear-cut: if an opportunity detracts from the goal of making Jazz mainstream and updating its sound for a new generation, it's not worth considering. "If an opportunity is beneficial, like working creatively with a music supervisor to create a piece of visual media which May's music lifts emotionally, then it's a no brainer."

And when does a good-looking opportunity get passed on? Omar has a sharp answer: "I would pass if I realize that the opportunity somehow makes the artist smaller, cheaper, confused, exposed, or misaligned. That can happen even when the opportunity looks good from the outside." Rights that are vague, usage too broad for the money, messy communication, disrespectful deadlines, wrong brand fit, any of these can kill a yes. And the one that gets a laugh every time: "I will always pass if the opportunity gives the partner value but gives the artist only 'exposure' — because exposure is not a business model."

"I will always pass if the opportunity gives the partner value but gives the artist only 'exposure' — because exposure is not a business model." Omar Marcelo Henao

Jasmin keeps it practical: "ROI and logistics are the main ones." If the cost of travel, lodging, and equipment clearly outweighs the payout, it doesn't make sense. "I'm not going to put my artist in a position where they end up losing money on an opportunity that was supposed to be a win. The same logic applies to other partnership deals. If the terms are overly restrictive, the timeline is unrealistic, or the relationship dynamic feels off from the start, those are all reasons to walk away regardless of how attractive the headline number looks."

Mika adds an important nuance, passing on something is rarely a final no. "Every proposal with a level of logic is reviewed—even those based on wrong assumptions—because there may still be hidden value. However, a strong financial offer does not automatically make it the right move." And he's always willing to stay in touch, because "sometimes the real connection isn't in the original proposal, but in something adjacent to it. A 'no' today is rarely absolute — it often becomes a 'yes' six months later when the variables finally fit the equation."

Tech & Workflow

On the tools and workflow side, the theme is centralisation. Omar isn't attached to any specific platform, but he's clear on what he needs: "The real thing needed is a system, one that tells the truth quickly. A portal can be very useful if it organizes the real work: files, metadata, rights, approvals, messages, opportunities, deadlines, and delivery status. The best tools would need to reduce uncertainty. Because uncertainty is expensive. It slows decisions, creates mistakes, damages relationships, and sometimes even kills opportunities." 

Jasmin wants live data, fast support, and everything in one place: "As a manager, you're constantly juggling communication across multiple partners, tracking the status of different opportunities, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks. Tools that bring all of that into one place where I can see a conversation, the related assets, and the analytics all at once are invaluable." 

Mika's approach is deliberate: tools must fit his existing system, not replace it. He uses different AI tools for different purposes, has trained them to align with specific workflows, and still prefers a significant amount of manual control to maintain clarity. "For a new tool to be adopted, it must fit into our existing structure without causing disruption." Within that context, he's specific about what works: "Synchtank's Artist Portal is a great example of a functional solution for its specific purpose. It's an effective self-service environment for managing assets and metadata—handling that particular side of the process in a structured way. This allows the system to take care of the technical documentation in the background, while we keep the day-to-day management agile, personal, and focused on the creative work."

"Synchtank's Artist Portal is a great example of a functional solution for its specific purpose. It's an effective self-service environment for managing assets and metadata—handling that particular side of the process in a structured way." Mika Karhumaa

For Ian, the practical work of sync is less glamorous than it sounds; organising the catalog, maintaining clean metadata, prepping stems, and researching the right supervisors to pitch to. But getting all of that right is precisely what earns the relationship. Music supervisors are busy, and anything that removes friction from their side of the process is a genuine competitive advantage. As Ian puts it: "Nobody has ever said they wish a song cleared slower!"

But, where does friction still exist?

For Omar, it's the data problem: "The industry still confuses numbers with understanding. Streams matter, but streams alone do not tell enough. I want to know what behavior is happening. Are people saving? Are they coming back? Are they following the artist or just hearing one song? What cities are reacting? What audience is real? What content is driving action? You monetize behavior, not numbers."

Jasmin points to how scattered everything remains: "Opportunities arrive through different channels; email, DMs, phone calls, with inconsistent levels of information attached. Then the back-and-forth to gather basic details eats up time that should be spent actually evaluating the opportunity. On top of that, data from streaming platforms, sync activity, and audience analytics often live in completely separate places, so building a full picture of an artist's performance requires jumping between multiple dashboards." 

Mika sees the bottleneck differently: "Friction in the industry today rarely comes from a lack of information; it stems from a challenge of interpretation. We have more access to data than ever before. The real bottleneck is no longer access, but understanding what actually matters within that noise." He also flags a subtler risk: "As technology evolves and automation increases, there is a constant temptation to optimize everything. The risk here is losing sight of the artistic 'why'—the core reason behind what we are building."

Personal Touch & Future Outlook

Ask any of these managers what instantly makes them happy in a working relationship, and the answers converge fast.

Omar: "When someone is clear. I don't need ten paragraphs of nice language. I need to understand what is happening. So I appreciate that if something is small, say it is small. If something is uncertain, say it is uncertain. If something has no budget, just say it has no budget. I can work with reality but I don't like the pretending or manipulating game."

Jasmin: "Transparent communication, fast response, and a collaborative mindset. When I reach out to a partner and they get back to me quickly with real information and a genuine interest in making something work, that's immediately a good sign. It tells me that we're working with people who respect each other's time and are actually invested in the outcome, not just trying to close a deal."

Mika goes a step further than the operational: "What truly elevates a partnership is when collaborators don't just wait for instructions but actively think along and contribute to the process. Beyond the operational side, I deeply value a genuine willingness to help without hesitation or calculation." He calls it "quiet generosity" — and it's a cornerstone of how he operates. "In a strong working relationship, mutual respect is the foundation. Even in the middle of high-pressure schedules, that kind of human presence and consideration makes collaboration not just effective, but something I genuinely look forward to."

Ian, typically, goes straight to the music: "The creation of great music! Music is constantly evolving with every generation but is steady in the way it tells stories, shares experiences and conveys emotions in an understanding way. It's the final product that ultimately counts!"

As we look ahead, the managers have a clear shared wish: less chaos, more structure.

Omar sees the biggest systemic problem as the industry assuming artists arrive ready. "Most artists are not ready just because they have music uploaded to DSPs. They have songs, but maybe not structure. They may have content, but that does not mean they have a clear identity. They can have followers, but they might not quite have a fan relationship system in place. Most have ambition, but not strategy or structure at all." Throwing more tools, services, and deadlines at unprepared artists doesn't help anyone. "The future cannot only be more speed and more tools and more content and more output. That will burn people out and create more confusion. The future has to be better structure — because when the artist is structured, the whole ecosystem can work better around them."

For Jasmin, it comes down to tooling built with managers in mind: "Right now, the role requires toggling between so many different platforms, inboxes, and spreadsheets just to stay on top of things. A unified space where I can track opportunities, access assets, monitor data, and communicate with partners and artists all in one place would be a game changer. The more the industry moves toward building tools with the manager's workflow in mind, the more sustainable and effective this role becomes. And honestly, when managers can do their jobs more efficiently, the artists win too."

Ian keeps his eyes on the creative horizon: "I've really enjoyed a lot of films and movies released recently and the direction sync has gone over the past 20 years. I'd love to grow the size of my network of music supervisors and work collaboratively with more of them in the future." He's on LinkedIn and welcomes connections from across the film and music world.

And Mika closes with a perspective that feels right for the moment: "The future of management is orchestration, not control. True sustainability is achieved when our systems allow for organic growth and transparent collaboration across the entire industry." And on a personal note: "The future is not something to be feared; it is something to be shaped. And ultimately, that is what artist management continues to be about."

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So, what did we learn? 

• Send the brief, not the breadcrumbs: Placement context, fee, term, territory, rights, deadline, all of it, in the first message. Managers spend too much time chasing basic information that should have been there from the start.

• Managers aren't gatekeepers, they're translators: When they slow something down, it's protection, of the artist, the partner, and the opportunity itself. Independent managers are often doing five jobs at once without a department behind them; treat them accordingly.

• Big doesn't always mean right: The best opportunities build something—positioning, leverage, audience. A sync deal, a booking, a brand partnership, all of it should serve progression, not just look good on paper. Exposure alone is not a business model.

• Centralise everything: One source of truth for assets, metadata, rights, approvals, and communication removes uncertainty, and uncertainty is expensive. Nobody has ever said they wish a song cleared slower.

Over to you labels, publishers, and libraries…you've heard it straight from the managers themselves. Clear briefs, clean metadata, no more files scattered across Dropbox, email, and WhatsApp DMs. Synchtank's Artist Portal lets your artists upload tracks and all associated data including ISRCs, release dates, genres, moods, and keywords, while you manage, approve, and keep everything industry-ready on your side. Pair that with Synchtank's Core Platform for end-to-end rights management and monetisation, and you've got the one source of truth every manager in this piece was asking for. Consider this your sign to tighten things up.