Artist Management: What It Entails?

The talent manager is the one in charge of guiding and overseeing the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry, whether its in music, television, movies, and/or publishing. This person is in charge of overseeing that the day-to-day affairs of the artist get carried out. This individual is in charge of exposing the artist to different career opportunities, it involves marketing the artist and/or product. What most of us don’t know, until now, is that talent managers take also the role of friend to their artists. They become the advisors, almost to the point of counseling or psychology.

Some little-known facts about talent managers are that artists are subject to exclusivity for their managers. The managers on the other hand can represent as many artists as they want or are able to. The perfect example to this is Mr. Johnny Wright, manager to stars like New Kids on the Block, the Jonas Brothers, Menudo, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Stevie Brock, and Ciara.

But his most notable talents are the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. Something that these artists forget is that this is a business deal. Johnny Wright is one of the most important and successful talent managers in the business. Wright was hired by the BSB prior to *NSYNC even considering to hire him. Lou Pearlman was the mastermind behind these two extremely successful boy bands, and later was fired by *NSYNC for being declared guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding, in 2008 Pearlman was convicted and sentenced to (up to) 25 years and proceeded to hire Wright.

Now this “it’s a business deal” deal has come to some particular blows in this case specifically. These two artists were on top of their game at the time. And when it eventually came to them having the same manager it enforced even more the long-standing battle of the boy-bands. In their post- Lou Pearlman years they went on to become the hottest acts in the business. They toured the world, and their fan base is as strong as the beginning.

For the Backstreet Boys though, it wasn’t always peaches and cream. At one point they felt like there was a compromise between their band and their affairs and *NSYNC and their affairs. They, at one point, felt like Wright was paying more attention to *NSYNC than to them, and eventually went their separate ways. That situation created tension between Wright and the Backstreet Boys for quite some time, until they eventually came back together again and the Backstreet Boys launched their new album called “Incomplete”.

The rest is history really, *NSYNC decided to “take a break” and focus on their personal interests, majorly being Justin Timberlake’s try at a solo career. They emphasized many times that they weren’t breaking up, and for official matters, they weren’t, they just haven’t decided to get back together.

The Backstreet Boys merged with the New Kids on the Block and went on tour creating the new and improved NKOTBSB. And they’ve been on tour ever since.

Johnny Wright is successful because he has believed in his talents. He gave his all to all his artists and still is. In the case of these two bands, you could say that they were successful, but once they got together with Johnny Wright, it was impossible to miss what these boys were doing at that moment in time. He’s an example to follow, if you ever decided to go on the artist management career path.

What are your comments regarding this management mogul? Hit me up on the comments section down below. Look forward to reading your thoughts.