Wendy Day breaks down three key hires for musicians: an accountant who tracks income and handles taxes (typically 5% of earnings), a booking agent who books shows for 10% commission, and a publicist who secures media coverage. She emphasizes setting aside a separate tax account to avoid IRS penalties.
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Hi guys, thanks for tuning in. So we're still talking about, um, putting together a strong team, and we've talked about, um, choosing a manager, hiring an attorney. Um, today I want to talk about the accountant, the publicist, and the booking agent. There are 3 other really important members of your team. The accountant is, um, also sometimes referred to as a business manager. That is the person that can help you put budgets together. They can oversee all of your income from streaming, from your touring, from your merch. Um, they can pay your taxes for you. And as a small business owner, you've got to pay your taxes quarterly. So it's not like you wait until April 15th and you send in your money from last year, you've got to pay your taxes quarterly or you get fined for being late. Um, and there's a penalty and there's interest. So your accountant is going to make sure that you're taken care of. Also, when you tour, you're going to pay state taxes in any state where you perform. So if you perform in Atlanta New Orleans and Dallas, you've got to pay state income tax to the state of Georgia, the state of Texas, and the state of Louisiana. And, um, your accountant is going to know that. They're going to know exactly what needs to be done, etc. A really good accountant will also put you on a budget. Some will pay all of your bills for you so that while you're out on the road, you don't have to worry about, you know, are your lights going to go off at home? You you know, is your mortgage getting paid or your rent getting paid? A lot of accountants or business managers will handle everything for you and they'll do it either for a flat fee or they'll do it for 5% of all of your entertainment income, roughly 5%, some, you know, it's negotiable. But an accountant is a very key member of your team because it's money. And I suggest that you guys set aside a separate account for your taxes, because the last thing you want is the IRS kicking in your door saying that you owe the money. So make sure you put aside enough money so that at the end of every quarter you're not scrambling to pay your taxes. Um, I also want to talk about the booking agent. A booking agent is someone who, um, for a 10% fee will book shows put you on tours, um, get you onto festivals. It's very difficult to find a booking agent early in your career because if there isn't demand for you, meaning if there aren't people that are willing to buy tickets to come see you at a show, it's going to be hard for a booking agent to make money. And since they're getting paid 10% of your show income, to hire somebody before there's really demand for you, you're not going to attract a great booking agent. So not only not only do you have to attract somebody that believes in you and wants to grow along with you, but you've got to choose a booking agent that can actually get you onto tours and onto shows when you're relatively new. The last member of your team that I want to talk about in this video is a publicist. And the reason that I always put a publicist as part of the team is because if you're operating in a vacuum and no one really knows what you're doing, it, it doesn't makes sense. A publicist is the person that gets the media— blogs, magazines, um, TV, radio— to talk about you. So they can't go and get you placements if you've got nothing going on. They're really just a megaphone. They're somebody that sees what you're doing, sees the movement that you're building, and sees what you're accomplishing, and they translate it to editors at blogs and newspapers and media that they've got relationships with in order to inspire them to write about you and cover you. And, you know, every aspect of how you market and promote yourself all works together, sort of like puzzle pieces that fit together. So if you're getting, um, blog placements and you're also getting, um, a high amount of streams or spins at a radio station, you're going to be able to go to the bloggers and say, hey, look, this artist is getting radio play. But you're also going to be able to go to the program directors and say, look, this artist is getting coverage at such-and-such blog. So they all kind of work hand in hand and they're intertwined to help propel your career forward. So those are the 3 members of your team, um, that we talked about today. Tomorrow we're going to cover your videographer who does your content, because that's so important in today's marketplace, and we're going to talk about a social media guru. So tomorrow we're going to talk about the digital side of your team. Thanks for tuning in.
