Dicussion Board Post 04052011

Prompt: Advise Artist on what problems and/or benefits you think the agreement has and whether he should sign with Manager. The contract reads as follows:

Definitions
Term
Services
Fees and Commissions
Artists Career
Scope
Controversies
Standard of Conduct
BENEFITS ARTIST IS ENTITLED TO AT EVERY
PERFORMANCE

Examples from assignment…
“Whereas, MANAGER is an experienced manager in the entertainment industry;”

“Whereas, it is therefore ARTIST’S desire that MANAGER’S Compensation be determined in such manner as will permit MANAGER to accept the risk of failure and likewise benefit to the extent of ARTIST’S success.”

Given, confusing syntax and lexical choices, the entire contract is to give manager a lot of power over the artist who signs for three years and 18 months after. For the first part: I have issues with the use of whereas and the grammatical misuse of the “;”; plus, I believe these should be in terms section title “Definitions” or something to that effect. I feel the grammar messes with a clear meaning to what the artist is agreeing to. If I was the artist, I could not sign because I would than likely not be able to creatively, financially, and emotionally handle the manager in continue my career four years in the future.

Case in point, Services Section is not clear but the language of this section has reasonable and unreasonable aspects. The “council” and “advice” of the manager makes sense, but “direction” attached to words such as “embellish” and “value” seems to lead the manage to have creative and financial control over the artist both of which are not good things to have control over. An Artist has to breath creatively and a manager should enhance what talent is already there. Financial control isn’t necessary bad if a manager is actually developing funds for the brand and maintaining a financial future for the artist after the contract is over; however, most times that’s not the case.


More proof of my thesis: The “Artist’s Career Section” seems to place all the work and responsibility on the Artist reflexively instead on the manager by simply adding “Artist” where “Manager” should be.