A music career in the ideal setting is envisioned to be a long one with adoring fans and reunion concerts and tours until you retire at the tender age of 80. Die peacefully in your sleep and have your album sales shoot through the roof as fans in mourning pay tribute to you through requesting your songs on the radio and playing your songs until the lyrics in the music has been ingrained in their mind. This all thanks to the hard work of movie script clearance tools and the right promoter.

So what is a music promotion agent and what is their importance? In essence a music promotional agent is the individual tasked with the responsibility to make shows happen for artists. However, the job they do is not only limited to that but the negotiation of contracts and agreements necessary for performances like live performances.

For an artist on the lookout for an agent there are a few things that they need to look out for so that they are not duped or find themselves in contracts that they cannot get out of nor make any money off. Make sure that the agent you have in mind is registered with an agency, secondly, your agent works with a promoter and not an old friend who owns a bar and lastly, although this one may be hard to spot is that music agents charge lower commissions compared to other professionals in the music industry.

The reason promotional agents charge less is that agents get paid on a commission basis which is a normalised but can range all the way up to over 10 percent depending on the specifics of a contract. Not to mention that there is the need to focus on the fine print so as to not have any nasty surprise.

But all of this does not come for free and remuneration is usually capped at a percentage mark of 20 but as an industry standard is often 10 to 12% commission of what the artist earns. The music promotion agent is not limited to one artist however and can be managing two or three artists at a time.

All of this is not done as a humanitarian effort and requires remuneration. Most music promotion agents, whether managing a small band or a large artist show similar traits. Most of the time the same remuneration structure which often involves payment through a percentage obtained through touring is followed. Most of these percentages range between 10 and 12% but in some instances can go all the way to 20% depending on the contractual agreement.

With that said, most of the music production agent s work is done away from the stage. As they are responsible for the logistics of travelling, the arrangement of venues and contracts as previously stated but beyond that they play a crucial role in making sure that signed artist stays signed by finding a way of keeping executives of the record label the artist is signed to happy without compromising on the creative one's musical integrity. This is not always the case but they do try keep things as fair and even for both parties.

The music production manager is a jack of all trades and master of quite a few, having to juggle not only the demands of the singer but those of management in the record label as well as have their ears to the ground in order to stay ahead of the curve.