Lawyer, manager, business manager, admin: who does what

71 · 2026-10-09 · 18 min read · Español

A lawyer advises on and drafts the documents that move your rights; a manager runs your career; a business manager runs your money; a publishing administrator registers your songs and collects their publisher’s share. The law puts an edge on two of the four: only a licensed lawyer may practise law, and in California procuring engagements for a musician requires a talent-agency licence, recording contracts excepted. It puts none on the other two, and no statute read for this page licenses the title “business manager.” Keep the four jobs in different hands where you can, and have every statement addressed to you.

• A lawyer advises on and drafts the documents that move your rights; a manager runs your career; a business manager collects and pays out your money; a publishing administrator registers your songs and collects their publisher’s share.
• California’s Talent Agencies Act requires a licence to procure engagements for musical artists and exempts procuring recording contracts. The California Supreme Court held in 2008 that the Act applies to managers, including a single booking.
• A business manager is paid by monthly retainer, by the hour, or by a percentage of gross income — typically 5 per cent, according to Bobby Borg’s guide. No statute read for this page licenses the title; “CPA” is a protected title in California and Ontario.
• A publishing administrator works under a grant for a term and owns no copyright. A lawyer is the only one of the four licensed to advise on your rights, and must not act with a conflict of interest, which the rules define to include duties to a third person.
• In both records cited here — a 2009 jury verdict and a 2017 guilty plea — a musician’s money moved through an account the musician did not watch or statements the musician never received. Have every bank and royalty statement addressed to you.

Who does what?

A lawyer handles documents that move rights; a manager runs the career; a business manager runs the money; an administrator registers and collects your songs. Four people, four jobs, and the table is the page in one place.

The California Supreme Court drew the first line in one paragraph. Agents “procure roles,” and “Managers coordinate everything else; they counsel and advise, take care of business arrangements, and chart the course of an artist’s career.” The next sentence in Marathon v. Blasi is the reason this page exists: “This division largely exists only in theory.”

The second line is drawn by money. Bobby Borg’s guide, excerpted in Music Connection, puts the two managers side by side: a personal manager “is more like the chief executive officer (CEO) of your company,” and a business manager “is more like the chief financial officer (CFO) of your company, who helps manage the income from these deals once they’re in place.” One brings the deals in. The other is where the money from them lands.

The last two are drawn by documents. An administrator works under a grant you sign, and Songtrust, which is one, says what the grant leaves out: “Administration agreements do not include creative services.” And the lawyer’s job is the only one of the four a statute defines, in four verbs that have their own page. Four jobs. Two of them have a legal edge, and the edge is where people get hurt.

What does a manager do, and what may a manager not do?

A manager runs your career for a commission; in California, booking engagements needs a talent-agency licence, and procuring a recording contract does not. The first half is the job. The second half is the law.

The job, in one law firm’s list. Romano Law: “Managers typically take care of business decisions, social media, promotion, touring agreements and sponsorships,” and they are “often involved in hiring and being the principal contact for the rest of the artist’s professional team (including booking agents, producers, attorneys, accountants and more).” What a manager is paid, and what a manager may sign in your name, are both set by the agreement, and both are on the page about handing a manager your catalogue: the commission, the paid-first clause, the power of attorney, the sunset.

Now the edge. California’s Labor Code section 1700.4 defines a talent agency as anyone in the occupation of “procuring, offering, promising, or attempting to procure employment or engagements for an artist or artists,” and its list of artists includes “musical artists” and “musical organizations.” The exemption sits in the same sentence: procuring “recording contracts for an artist or artists shall not of itself subject a person or corporation to regulation and licensing.” Section 1700.5 closes the door: “No person shall engage in or carry on the occupation of a talent agency without first procuring a license therefor from the Labor Commissioner.”

In 2008 the California Supreme Court settled who that reaches. The Act’s strictures “apply to managers as well as agents,” and it “extends to individual incidents of procurement” — one booking is enough. Section 1700.44 leaves one door open: an unlicensed person may act “in conjunction with, and at the request of, a licensed talent agency in the negotiation of an employment contract.”

Acting alone, then, an unlicensed manager in California may procure a recording contract and may not procure a performance engagement. Yes to the record deal; no to Tuesday night at the bar.

The rule has been applied to a band. In Park v. Deftones, the Court of Appeal recites that the Labor Commissioner determined the band’s former manager “had violated the Act by obtaining performance engagements for the Deftones on 84 occasions without a license,” and declared three personal management agreements “null, void and unenforceable.” What the remedy can be, and how long an artist has to ask for it, is in the FAQ.

New York draws the line in its General Business Law. A theatrical employment agency is anyone who “procures or attempts to procure employment or engagements for an artist,” but the definition in section 171 “does not include the business of managing entertainments, exhibitions or performances, or the artists or attractions constituting the same, where such business only incidentally involves the seeking of employment therefor,” and section 172 requires the licence. Incidentally is the whole argument, and it is a word for a lawyer to weigh.

In Canada the question is provincial, and British Columbia has an answer on the books. Its Employment Standards Act defines a talent agency as a person that, for a fee, engages in “offering to procure, promising to procure or procuring employment for actors, performers, extras or technical creative film personnel,” and section 12(1) says “A person must not operate an employment agency or a talent agency unless the person is licensed under this Act.” Whether a manager booking a club for a band falls inside “performers” and “employment” is not decided by any ruling read for this page, so this page does not decide it either. Whatever the jurisdiction, what a manager needs on day one is the same list.

What does a business manager do?

A business manager collects your income, pays your bills, keeps the books, coordinates taxes and checks royalties, for a retainer, hourly fee or percentage. The manager brings the money in. The business manager is where it lands.

Borg’s list is the job description: “A business manager handles all financial issues, such as investments, financial planning, bookkeeping, tour account services, asset administration, tax services, insurance monitoring, and royalty examination.” The accounts it runs “are open under your name, and you have to provide your signature to the bank,” and the business manager “then collects all of your income, which can range from touring and merchandising monies to publishing and artist royalties, and deposits it into these accounts.”

Royalty examination is the part this site already writes about: why a statement comes in short, and how to read a distributor’s line by line. A business manager is somebody paid to do both, every period, for every source.

Borg lists three ways business managers are paid: a flat monthly retainer, “a straight hourly fee,” or “a percentage, typically 5 percent, of your gross income (excluding investment income, tour support, and recording “costs”).” For new artists he puts the retainer between $500 and $3,000 a month. Those are one author’s figures from one market, and they are stated here as his.

Then the sentence that should change how you hire one. Borg: “in the state of California (check other states), a business manager needs no credentials, licensing, or educational qualifications.” Two neighbouring titles are licensed. In California only a licensee may use “certified public accountant” or “C.P.A.” under Business and Professions Code section 5055, and in Ontario the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario Act bars anyone but a member from using the designation or practising “as a Chartered Professional Accountant.” Ask which licence the person holds, if any, and who can take it away.

The registers already know the role exists. SoundExchange says the primary contact on an account “could be a financial advisor, business manager, or anyone the registrant deems fit for the role,” and that the primary contact “receives all statements and email communications from SoundExchange.” Hold on to that second clause; it comes back two sections down.

Taxes are where the work moves and the responsibility does not. The IRS, in its tip on choosing a tax professional: “Taxpayers are ultimately responsible for all the information on their federal income tax return, regardless of who prepares the return.” The CRA, in its own words: “even if someone else prepares your tax return, you are responsible for all the information on the return.” Somebody prepares it, you sign it, and if they fuck it up, the letter comes to you.

What does a publishing administrator do that the others cannot?

An administrator registers your songs with societies and collects their publisher’s share for a term, under a signed grant, and owns no copyright. It is the only one of the four that stands in the register as the party for your songs.

Songtrust’s help centre puts the two limits in consecutive sentences: “Publishing administrators do not own your copyright at any point during or after the term of the agreement. Administration agreements do not include creative services.” Nobody at the administrator is pitching your song to a film. Registration is the job.

The register says who that party is. The MLC defines a Member as “the person or entity that is authorized to administer musical works and receive digital audio mechanical royalties related to their use,” and an administrator is authorised by the grant you signed. A manager is not that party unless you have signed an agreement that makes them one.

Your writer’s share never passes through the administrator: your PRO pays it to you directly. What the administrator’s percentage is charged on, and when it is worth paying, is its own page, and this one restates neither.

The overlap to watch is the manager who offers to be the publisher too. The Music Managers Forum’s code of practice covers it: where a manager “also acts independently for the client in any other capacity (publisher, label, agent, producer etc), they shall declare such interests and recommend their client receives independent expert advice to help them determine if there is a conflict of interest.” The same code says a manager “should not charge an artist multiple fees or commissions on the same revenue stream,” short of exceptional circumstances and the artist’s written consent after legal advice. Two hats, one declaration, and a lawyer who is yours.

What does a lawyer do that none of the other three may?

Practise law: advise on your rights, draft and negotiate the documents that move them, and represent you; Ontario’s statute reserves those acts to licensees. It is the only job on this page a statute takes off the table for everyone else.

Ontario’s Law Society Act says it in one sentence: “no person, other than a licensee whose licence is not suspended, shall practise law in Ontario or provide legal services in Ontario.” What counts as legal services, and the four duties a licensee owes a client, are on the page about what a music lawyer does. The consequence for the other three is short. Your manager can tell you what a clause usually means in practice; only a licensee may advise you on what it does to your rights.

That makes the lawyer the one person who reads the other three’s paper: the management agreement, the business management agreement, the administration agreement. In each of them the other person’s interest and yours point in different directions, which is exactly the case the conflict rule is written for.

The rule is 3.4-1 of the Model Code that Canada’s law societies write theirs from: “A lawyer must not act or continue to act for a client where there is a conflict of interest, except as permitted under this Code.” A conflict is “a substantial risk that a lawyer’s loyalty to or representation of a client would be materially and adversely affected by the lawyer’s own interest or the lawyer’s duties to another client, a former client, or a third person.” The lawyer your manager found you may be an excellent lawyer — for your manager.

The managers’ own body says the same thing from its side of the table. The Music Managers Forum’s code asks its members to encourage a written agreement, “recommending the artist seeks and receives independent legal advice before signing.” Where to find that lawyer, starting from free, is its own page.

Who checks whom?

The business manager checks the manager’s commission, you check the business manager, and the lawyer reads every agreement; nothing works if statements bypass you. Each job is a check on the one beside it. Collapse two into one person and a check disappears.

The default runs the other way. Romano Law: “Most manager agreements will specify that all of an artist’s income is paid to the manager first, who will deduct his or her commission and then pay the balance to the artist,” and the same guide has managers hiring the rest of the team, “attorneys, accountants and more.” Ask who watches the watchman, and the answer is someone the watchman hired.

Two records show what a missing check costs. In Malmsteen v. Berdon, a professional musician “employed defendant Lewis as his personal manager and defendant Mitnick as his business manager,” and claimed the manager embezzled millions; a New York federal jury awarded $450,000 against the business manager and Berdon, the firm sued beside him, for breach of fiduciary duty. Refusing to set the verdict aside, the court wrote the business manager’s job description as a failure: a reasonable jury could have found they acted against the musician’s interests “by failing to take reasonable steps as plaintiffs business agent to monitor plaintiffs income that was being deposited into a bank account maintained by Lewis.”

The second record is a guilty plea. In 2017 the US Attorney in Los Angeles announced a six-year sentence for “a certified public accountant who was the business manager for singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette,” for stealing about $7.2 million from his clients; his position gave him access to their bank accounts “so he could pay their bills and obtain cash for them.” The release says how it stayed hidden: “Schwartz was able to conceal the embezzlements because the bank statements were sent to GSO, and not to the clients.” He held a licence. He also held every statement.

One check failed because the business manager trusted an account the manager kept; the other because nobody but the business manager saw the bank. The Music Managers Forum asks its members to be “committed (and duty bound) to absolute transparency in all contractual and financial business dealings that concern their client.” Transparency is something you can arrange rather than hope for.

So arrange it; these are our recommendations, not anybody’s rule. Every bank account and every register that pays — distributor, PRO, The MLC, SoundExchange — in your name, with the statements addressed to you; where a register lets you name a primary contact, as SoundExchange does, name yourself. The business manager and the lawyer engaged by you, not through the manager. A limited power of attorney for the business manager as for the manager, and money paid to you with commission taken against a statement you both read, which is the alternative to paid-first.

Which one do you hire first?

Whoever owns the problem in front of you: a document needs a lawyer, foreign earnings an administrator, a crowded calendar a manager. None of the four is compulsory, and each can be hired for one job.

Each of the four can be bought in smaller pieces than a retainer. The lawyer’s page has its own list of things that need no lawyer; the administration page names the free doors at home; Borg lists an hourly fee for business management; and a management agreement is where a manager’s scope is written down, so write it narrow.

Then set the team up in the order this page argues for: every account in your name, every statement addressed to you, each person one job, and each agreement read by a lawyer who is yours. The audit checklist is where you check, once a year, that it stayed that way.

FAQ

Can my manager also be my business manager?

Nothing in the statutes read for this page forbids it, but it removes the one person whose job is checking the manager’s commission against the money. Keep the two jobs in separate hands where the income allows, and where it does not, have every statement addressed to you.

Can my manager also be my publisher or administrator?

Yes, if you sign an agreement that makes them one. The Music Managers Forum’s code of practice says a manager acting in another capacity must declare the interest and recommend independent advice, and should not take more than one commission on the same income without exceptional circumstances and your written consent.

Do I need a business manager if I already have an accountant?

Not necessarily: an accountant prepares and files your returns, while a business manager runs the money between filings — collecting it, paying bills, budgeting and checking royalties. Bobby Borg’s guide lists an hourly fee among the three ways business managers are paid, so the second job can be bought in pieces.

What happens if a manager booked shows without a licence in California?

The artist can take the dispute to the Labor Commissioner, within one year of the violation, and the Commissioner may void the management agreement or sever the unlawful part. The California Supreme Court held in 2008 that both remedies are available and neither is mandatory.

Sources

• California Labor Code, § 1700.4 — (a) the definition of a talent agency and the recording-contract exemption; (b) the definition of artists, including musical artists and musical organizations.
• California Labor Code, § 1700.5 — no talent agency without a licence from the Labor Commissioner.
• California Labor Code, § 1700.44 — (a) controversies heard by the Labor Commissioner; (c) the one-year limit; (d) acting with, and at the request of, a licensed talent agency.
• Supreme Court of California, Marathon Entertainment, Inc. v. Blasi (2008) 42 Cal.4th 974 — agents and managers in the court’s words; the division “largely exists only in theory”; the Act applying to managers and to individual incidents of procurement; voiding and severance each available and neither mandatory.
• California Court of Appeal, Park v. Deftones (1999) 71 Cal.App.4th 1465 — the Labor Commissioner’s determination of 84 engagements without a licence and the management agreements declared null, void and unenforceable, as the opinion recites them.
• New York General Business Law, § 171 — subdivision 8, the definition of a theatrical employment agency and the exclusion for managing where seeking employment is only incidental.
• New York General Business Law, § 172 — the licence required to operate an employment agency.
• British Columbia, Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113 (current to 22 September 2026) — s. 1, the definition of a talent agency; s. 12(1), the licence requirement.
• Romano Law, Key Contract Terms for Musicians and Managers (2024-11-14) — what managers typically take care of; managers hiring the rest of the team; income paid to the manager first.
• Music Managers Forum, Code of Practice (the Code unchanged when the complaints process was updated in September 2026) — absolute transparency; independent legal advice before signing; declaring other capacities and recommending independent advice; no multiple commissions on one revenue stream without exceptional circumstances and written consent.
• Bobby Borg, Business Managers: Bills and Investments, Music Connection (2022-06-28), excerpted from Business Basics for Musicians, 2nd edition — the CEO and CFO comparison; the business manager’s list of duties; accounts in your name; collecting income; the three ways of being paid and the figures for each; no credentials or licence required in California.
• California Business and Professions Code, § 5055 — “certified public accountant” and “C.P.A.” reserved to licensees.
• Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario Act, 2017, S.O. 2017, c. 8, Sched. 3 (e-Laws, current to 30 September 2026) — s. 29(1), the designation and the practice reserved to members.
• SoundExchange, Primary & Guest Access in SoundExchange Direct: Everything You Need to Know (dated 2020-11-24 in its address) — the primary contact who may be a business manager and receives all statements.
• Internal Revenue Service, Tax Tip 2025-11, Choosing a tax professional (2025-02-06) — taxpayers ultimately responsible for their return, regardless of who prepares it.
• Canada Revenue Agency, Beware of tax schemes that promise to reduce your taxes (modified 2026-09-11) — responsibility for the information on a return someone else prepared.
• Songtrust Help Center, What Exactly Is an Administration Agreement? — no ownership during or after the term; no creative services.
• The MLC Help Center, What is a user? How do I create a user account? — the definition of a Member as the party authorised to administer musical works.
• Law Society Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.8, e-Laws consolidation — s. 26.1(1), practising law and providing legal services reserved to licensees.
• Federation of Law Societies of Canada, Model Code of Professional Conduct (as amended April 2024) — rule 3.4-1 on conflicts, and the Code’s definition of a conflict of interest.
• US District Court, S.D.N.Y., Malmsteen v. Berdon, LLP, 595 F. Supp. 2d 299 (21 January 2009) — the personal and business managers; the claim; the $450,000 verdict on breach of fiduciary duty; the court’s reasoning on monitoring the income.
• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, CPA Sentenced to 6 Years in Federal Prison for Embezzling $7.2 Million from Alanis Morissette and Other Celebrities (2017-05-03, updated 2017-06-23) — the sentence, the access to clients’ bank accounts, and the statements sent to the firm rather than the clients.

Every page cited here was read on the date at the top of this piece; e-Laws, CourtListener, justice.gov and Music Connection were read in a browser, and the Model Code is a PDF decoded with the standard library. The statutes are quoted from each jurisdiction’s own consolidation, and the two court records and the DOJ release are quoted for what they say and nothing after it: Park v. Deftones for the Labor Commissioner’s determination as the opinion recites it, Malmsteen for the verdict and the ruling on the post-trial motions, the release for the plea and the sentence. The fee figures are Bobby Borg’s, attributed to him, and this page adds no range of its own; the commission and the administration rate are on their own pages. Whether British Columbia’s Act reaches a music manager is stated as unknown because no ruling read for this page decides it. The recommendations in the section on who checks whom are ours. Nothing here is legal or tax advice about your situation: a lawyer is the person who reads your agreement, and an accountant the person who reads your return.