Dan Biddle
Roster: Casey Barnes, Sara Berki
Location: NSW
Listen: Dan’s Manager Of The Month Playlist
Advice I’d Give My Younger Self In Artist Management
I would tell myself to spend the money on a lawyer and an accountant to make sure you are getting the right advice for setting up your business and contracts. While our job is to help artists, we cannot do that to our own detriment – and I would tell my younger self to make sure I look out for myself and say no if a deal is not going to work to my benefit.
Proud Moments in Management
To focus on Sara Berki for a moment…Sara was a full time hairdresser who decided to record some songs and ultimately released her debut single in March 2022. I heard that song (listened on repeat) and decided to reach out and we have been working together ever since. Sara was the sole writer on all of her music at that time and was at the forefront of the revival of mixing traditional country elements into modern, contemporary country in Australia – she was & is unique. Sara was also very green, she had never played with a band up to that point. We agreed on the strategy straight away and a key part of that was to do our best to never look desperate for anything. Fast forward a couple years and Sara was the first new Australian country artist signed to Warner Music Australia in over a decade and we didn't go searching for a record deal. She won an APRA PDA for Country/Americana, did her first headline tour last year including shows in Perth & Adelaide and a couple sell outs, has passed 10 million streams and over 10 million YouTube views to date, performed at the NRLW Grand Final last year and has been on every major country music festival in Australia and gave up the hairdressing to be a full time artist. I’m proud to be working with Sara and proud of the way we work together.
One Change That Could Better Support Managers and Artists
One area that needs discussion is the case for a manager having some sort of ownership or greater incentive when it comes to artists self-releasing their music. The manager is often supplying the services of a label/distributor and investing their time in lieu of money and so there needs to be some sort of commensurate reward for that investment.
Inspiration and Motivation
My interest in management and the music business in general dates back to 1989, when I started a high school band with my best friends. I gravitated to being the one that would organise things – deal with the agent & venues, contact the local media etc. By the end of high school my goal was to become the head of a record label. As my label career went on and I started working closer with artists and their managers, it became clear to me that the manager is the closest ally to the artist/s and that’s where I wanted to be.
I am constantly inspired & motivated by the artists that I work with, hearing a new song or seeing a great live performance. I love working on the jigsaw puzzle of a career, working out what the pieces are and where they fit. I also find the desire to learn as much as possible about the industry to be a great motivator.
A Pivotal Moment
I’ve had many moments in my career where I have spread myself too thin and ultimately had to pull back to focus on being able to provide a service I am proud of and therefore stand a better chance of achieving the goals we are setting. I have gotten better at saying no and making sure I am allocating my time to best suit my goals.
A Passion Outside Of Music
Outside of working on music, most of my time goes into raising my 2 ½ year old twin daughters with my wife – and mowing our lawn! Not a project or initiative as such but that’s where my non-work time is spent.
Let’s Talk Streaming Revenues
I think an issue that effects the industry in general is the misunderstanding & miscommunication around the disbursement of streaming revenues. The public (the audiences) are getting very mixed messages – on one hand we ask them to ‘pre-save’ our new single or album on the DSP’s, and on the other hand they’re getting told that those services are ripping artists off and they should be boycotted. The education and communication on this subject needs to be improved because at the end of the day, the more people who are subscribed to the DSP’s, the more revenue there is to go around.
Dream Music Industry Initiative
An area that I am passionate about is having more emerging managers and agents working in the country music space. There are so many great artists in Australia and a world of opportunities out there, we just need more people on the business side to help support the pool of talent.
Timeless Advice
When I got my first record label job, someone said to me that this business is all about being the last person standing, which I took to mean that you just need to keep going – so I am just going to keep going.
Key Achievements
I’m proud to have played a part in fostering the growth of country music in Australia over the last twenty years, in both my time as a manager and working at labels prior to that. The genre sits in a very different place to where it was when I started managing The McClymonts and Adam Eckersley Band in 2014.
AAM’s Impact on My Journey
I would say that even though I have largely operated on the sidelines of the AAM community – something I want to change in the future – just knowing that the access to the community and the resources of the AAM is there to tap into gives me a lot of peace of mind that I am not alone in this job.
On a financial level, I have been fortunate to be a recipient of the Music Australia International Conference Contribution - Managers funding twice, to help with showcase trips at CMA Fest in Nashville – which is the only way that those trips would have been viable for myself and the artists and lead to some great relationships and opportunities.