What you can't afford as a band

What Bands & Artists in Egypt ignore the most

Whether in big venues like El Geneina Theater, a club like Cairo Jazz Club, or a small cultural venue like 3elbet Alwan; ever wondered “They’re so good! How come this band didn’t make it big till now?” Unfortunately a lot of talented musicians never make it to the light, and the ones who managed to get out there could even do much better, in terms of reaching more audience and being more popular to be able to sustain themselves in the entertainment “market”, but sadly they don’t!

Cairo houses a lot of very talented musicians, and it’s saddening how bands, that really had a shot even on an international level, don’t make it!

Well, an inside look on the WHY through my personal experience as a musician has revealed that “no matter how talented you are, how much time you spend practicing your instrument, your talent will never reach its actual potential without proper management, just like any project willing to stay around and sustain itself.

Most bands’ members –if not all- have morning jobs or go to college, and they decide to squeeze their time in the evening to be able to dedicate it for making music, but in order to do that they also need to coordinate and organize rehearsals, take phone calls for bookings, promote the band, in other words, management. Usually the band members just share these responsibilities. Normally, anything else other than making music that has to do with running the band needs dedicated time and skill to support the band.

Having someone to coordinate the rehearsals, lookout for dates, book the band, making sure the band gets the payment in time, or even the drinks they have on the deal so the artists can relax and chill before they perform, and consequently having a clear mind to be able to give it their best. Problem is, these musicians get caught up in all the hassle and the musicians’ focus drifts away from what it was meant to do, and just to play live the whole process becomes very stressful, and playing music isn’t fun anymore as it once was, eventually fading away.

With that in mind, whether the band likes it or not, performances inevitably get affected (some even vanish) and will not be fair to the true talent lying underneath to show its potential. Not having someone dedicated JUST for that, makes the sustainability of the band questionable, because again, running a band needs time and focus (we are talking to bands who want to make it).

And you can understand why they vanish when you ask a band or an artist, why they don’t get a manager, all you get is “we can’t afford having a manager, besides, we’re not THAT of a big band to have a manager, and we can handle that”. Well, I can tell you, you can’t afford NOT having a manager even if you’re a small project in a bedroom whether you want to make it big and tour or just want to be able to continue making your music and playing it in your bedroom.

You need someone to go out there, not occupied by what words to choose for the next song’s lyrics, someone who sees the bigger picture, with a vision of what they can do with that band, how they can make the artist perform in front of more people.

In conclusion, whether you’re a band or a solo artist, someone else has to get in the trenches and fight the battles that’ll make you shine eventually.

How much money do you need to be generating as an artist to be able to afford a manager? What makes a good artist manager? We’ll be talking about that in the next article, stay tuned!