In Conversation with Andre Bourgeois
President and owner of Instinct Artist Management, an artist management company based in Nova Scotia. Bourgeois has extensive international experience related to touring, as well as distribution, licensing and label deals abroad. Bourgeois has been successfully managing recording acts for over 15 years. The company's clients currently include: singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and award winner JP Cormier, Latin Jazz guitarist Robert Michaels Progressive pop band MIR.
Q1. Are you looking for artists?
A. I am always open to artists and new music I am a music fan at the end of the day - they usually look for me...or people like me who do what I do.
Q2. How do you work with a band when you first sign them?
A. Different acts require different things...either way I try and build a team around the act: agents, lawyer, accountant, labels, etc. All artists deserve a good manager...there are very few good managers. To me it is all about having a plan that goes beyond next month – if someone is not willing or able to think in terms of years; and plan and then work that way – I am not interested.
Q3. By few good managers do you mean that few people in the industry are in it for the art?
A. Yes - they can't afford to be and the industry doesn't really "allow" for it anyway...trying to squeeze the words "industry" and "art" in the same sentence and career plan is a problem anyway. If it's imperative that one make enough money from their art (music) to survive...then they need to be prepared to make sacrifices and compromises to be part of the industry. It sucks basically...until one is successful, then the compromises change a little...the challenge then becomes how do we maintain this success?
Q4. At what point do artists have to be willing to put together a team of professionals and get out of self-management?
A. It usually becomes very apparent...either nothing substantial is happening and nothing is moving forward in a meaningful way or things are happening and that becomes overwhelming and is clearly taking away from the most important thing – the music.
Q5. What do you make of the theory that "chicks sell tickets"
A. Sex sells yes but lots of major male artists have sold many tickets without chicks (this does not include their fans)...Elton John, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, John Mayer, Pete Yorn. I think you'll actually find that there are a lot more male artists selling a lot more records and tickets than females...Britney, Madonna, Celine, Shania, etc. are the exceptions...look at hip hop and rap...look at hard rock and heavy metal...look at mainstream country. Again, I agree that sex sells in a certain context...sex does not sell James Taylor or Train or Elvis Costello...sex does help sell Justin Timberlake, Madonna, etc. I find that in this industry, ‘chicks’ are too often used, still, to sell music made by men...in videos, artwork, promotion, etc. I find it hard to watch a lot of videos these days that basically suggest to confirm the following: ‘You should want to be like me (person in the video) because regardless of how I might look or how ignorant I might be – I have scantily clad females all over and I have all sorts of material possessions like fancy cars and jewellery’. Where is any substance in this? The message is pretty empty.
Q6. How will the major labels today face the wake up call of not effectively understanding the popularity of music sharing and downloading from the internet?
A. The down turn in the music industry should really be referred to as a down turn in the sales of prerecorded and prepackaged music by record companies...touring is still strong, etc. etc. Fewer companies means fewer choices and options and greater control in the hands of fewer... bad bad time to be a major record company or working for one. The silver lining to this dark could is the opportunity it affords independent labels and artists.
Q7. Is there room for the new entrepreneur, person with a good idea, to break into business today?
A. There is always room for a good idea and so on but the times are a changing and the entire mode in which music is delivered and consumed is changing along with tv/computers/telephones... all slowly blending into one device and that will be the same device we watch, listen and buy our music through or on, we just aren't there yet. I think the time for a better informed artist is here. I think the time for a more creative and innovative manager is here too. The old model is just that, old
Q8. So who are the current label conglomerates, and what share of the market would each have?
A. With the merger of BMG and all its labels (i.e. – Arista, RCA, etc.) with Sony, this creates the largest label conglomerate: Sony/BMG. Next in size and market share would be Universal Music Group. These two giants are followed by Warner Music’s group of labels and EMI who are very close in size and market share depending on the territory. This ongoing conglomeration has resulted in a great amount of downsizing of facilities and staff. One of the first orders of business in these situations is to resolve any redundancy in the staffing positions of each company. The result has been global in scope. There are more out of work or looking for work, and/or early retired former music executives and middle management than there are those still employed by the major labels. This is the case in Canada and all the more the case in America and Europe.
Fewer major labels means fewer major label options and fewer people working there...fewer signings, shrinking rosters and a lot of job security paranoia serving as motivation for short term thinking and short term gains...not particularly good climate for artist or artist development.That is why more and more artists are finding a way to do things themselves
Q9. What shifts in that power paradigm can we expect?
A. We will see more and more independent labels and some will grow substantially. We will see more and more major artists running their own labels. The delivery system or vehicle for delivering and selling music, the CD, will slowly give way and erode... yielding to things like the internet, track by track digital distribution, singles will come back. Things will not get better before they get worse for music retail...they have the DVD to thank for keeping their doors open the last two years in many cases.
Q10. What product(s) should a musician envision releasing in a few years from now?
A. CD will still exist I think, for several years. The sale of single songs on line as downloads or delivered through some type of digital delivery system, such as a digital jukebox system that is incorporated with the overall home entertainment experience: TV, internet, DVD, phone and music...someday soon, that may all come through one wire and one system or via satellite to one playback system. Much of this has to do more with the delivery system and the system for play back than the music or the artists...when those two elements are caught up with each other...things will change quickly.
p.s. surprise Q: what can you tell me about the Guise?
A. How did you hear about The Guise? This was a free form musical experience that ran for a few years and had many member changes...the only constant being myself, my guitar and my simple recording gear in my basement.Hits included: ‘Shag Carpets’ (Rugs in General) ‘Death’ (You Burnt Me Bad) ‘Marriage’ (Is a Sacred Institution) ‘The River’ (Is All Things) ‘Dance Across Texas With You’ ‘Earth Toad’ and so on... a friend has ALL the Guise recordings at this time. I should get them and make sure they are preserved.
Instinct Artist Management 902-632-2149 p./902- 632-2468 f.1436 Highway 202, RR# 1 Hants County Gore, Nova Scotia, B0N 1P0, Canada
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