The person that I decided to interview was Sean Pennington.
Sean has been an artist manager for many years and has secured business deals
for several Gospel artist and a few up and coming and well know R & B
artists. I have known him for about 12 years due to our church
affiliations so I chose to have a conversation with him pertaining
to this class assignment because I know he would be honest based on his every day experiences. Sean is the owner of a company by the name of Flipside
Entertainment. I had the pleasure of asking Sean a few questions and they were
as follows:
When you are negotiating a deal what is your mindset going
in to the meeting?
Every deal that I negotiate the goal and mindset is to get
what I want or close to what I want. Different clients have different areas of
interests in mind but the bottom line is always about money. I manage Byron
Cage and it is always the intention of Byron to sing songs that glorify God and
bring people closer to Christ etc. His mission never changes but going into
negotiations we are looking to receive a particular amount of money and perks
if he is asked to perform.
In regards to positioning bargaining, do you think it is a
necessary tool for you when you are negotiating a deal for one of your artists?
I find that positioning bargaining is necessary for my
gospel artists more than for my R & B artists. Gospel artists do not make
as much as R & B artists and I will even proceed to say that Gospel artist
get paid little as compared to R & B artists. When negotiating for a Gospel artist I tend
to stick close to the amount that I want. I don’t go back and forth too much
because of the low amount of money that Gospel artists receive. In regards to
my R & B artists there are more funds available, the demand is higher and
there are more exposure opportunities for the R & B artist. I can negotiate
money for an R & B artist if the other party can agree to an opening act or
collaboration with another artist to gain exposure.
Please give me an example where you had to work toward
mutual benefit when you were negotiating a deal. After the deal was negotiated
did you regret your decision?
Being an artist manager allows me to be able work towards
mutual benefits when I think it is important and necessary for my client. I
manage Hezekiah Walker. When artists are in the area for a weekend that
Hezekiah Walker is preaching, I tend to get artists that are already in the
area to perform. Most artists come to a particular town sometimes for a one
night event but end up spending a few extra days or come in town earlier. I
will pay them for their service but at a much lower rate but because Hezekiah
Walker is worldwide, they are guaranteed to have a full audience and high
product sales. See when that happens we are not paying for flights, hotels or
anything except maybe for transportation to and from their hotel. The mutual
benefit for me is little out of pocket expenses for a great artist and the
mutual benefit for the artist is a great night to perform in front of hundreds
of people, great product sales if they bring product with them and just to be
headlined with Hezekiah Walker is a great benefit to the artist’s career.
Usually there is not a lot of back and forth negotiations when it is presented
that way. Remember, this is for a Gospel artist. As I said before, Gospel
artists struggle a lot in the music industry compared to an R & B artist.
Most Gospel artists are looking to get as much exposure as possible and if time
permits they will agree o he negotiation depending on their own level of
fame. Once a deal is made I rarely
regret my decision because I always put my client first and work hard from the
beginning of the negotiating deal to the end.
