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Sometimes being inside the “industry”, I take a lot of the language that we speak for granted and I forget that at times the people I deal with on a daily basis don’t always speak the same industry dialect. So, I thought I’d write a post addressing one of the more popular questions I get: What is the difference between an agent and a manager? An agent and manager have vastly different jobs. Why, you ask?
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The easiest way to sum up the difference between the two jobs is: An agent is typically responsible for only the live aspect of a career, whereas the a manager is responsible for managing an overall career, not just live appearances. Think of an artist’s career like a hockey game (since I’m Canadian and it is Olympic time!). The coach (aka. the manager) is directing his players as to how to play the game. The agent would be the centre and is responsible for the offense. All the other players each have their roles and they are all directed by the coach. The coach also has a boss: the owner (aka. the artist).
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As coach of the artist’s team, a manager basically acts as a hub or a filter for all aspects of the artist’s career. For a musician, this might include the record label, publicists, endorsement deals, social media consultants, merchandising, website designers, and agents. All of these team players would report to the manager -  even the agent (Wayne Gretzky had to listen to his coach too). To continue with the music example, the manager may have many agents working for them in different parts of the world. I manage an act that has an agent in the US, Canada, London and Singapore. All of these offensive players report back to me, the coach, for their given territories.

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Now, forget the hockey analogy. There are times where it isn’t worth having a manager. In comedy for instance, a lot of high earning comedians will work directly with an agent as their businesses may be entirely focused on live bookings, therefore paying a manager may not make sense.
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The role of the agent is typically very sales based. Their job is to get you gigs. When the artist has a manager, the agent, artist and manager would together lay out a strategy for touring or attracting live shows. The agent’s job is to implement the strategy and bring offers for performances to the manager. The manager, along with the input of the artist, then chooses to accept or pass on those offers.
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To sum it up, a manager’s job is typically more a partnership with the artist in implementing an overall business strategy and an agent is usually responsibly for a very specific role (live bookings) in artist’s career.
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- Justin Sudds – Gigsmacked.com

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