Scotty McCreery Owes $239,329 to Former Manager

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Ladera

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A jury in Nashville has ordered Scotty McCreery to pay his former manager $239,329 to compensate for five months of back pay. The court ruling came Wednesday (June 18) in a lawsuit filed by Todd Cassetty.

McCreery and Cassetty teamed up in late 2012 but parted ways early the following year. Cassetty claimed that he was owed the industry standard of 15 percent of McCreery's gross revenue during that time, according to The Tennessean, Nashville's daily newspaper. They did not have a written agreement in place when the relationship ended.

Following Wednesday's ruling, McCreery issued another statement regarding the outcome.

"I am very pleased with the management fee ruling of only $239,000, which was less than half of the $570,000 Mr. Cassetty requested," he said. "It was always my intention to pay Mr. Cassetty and indeed had offered to pay him more than once. His request, however, for over half a million dollars was too much for a few months of work.

"While it has been difficult to risk having my reputation challenged, I always believed that the truth would prevail, and it has. I have a management team, including a professional business manager, in Nashville advising me. Now I am happy to put this behind me and focus on my music. As always, I am thankful to my fans for all of their support."

http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1728493/scotty-mccreery-owes-239329-to-former-manager.jhtml

I've got a question. Why does a manager deserve 15%?

What do they do?
 
phil_m

phil_m

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I've got a question. Why does a manager deserve 15%?

What do they do?
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I don't think 15% is all that unreasonable, to be honest. Typically a manager handles all the bookings, deals with the business side of things, and helps things go smoothly. I'm sure you don't have to look very hard to find managers simply taking advantage of artists, but I don't know the facts in this case. But like I said, 15% doesn't seem exorbitant.
 
2HBStrat

2HBStrat

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Am I the only one who doesn't know who Scott McCreery is? (BTW I know I can google him and find out who he is, but :dunno).....
 
L

Luke

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phil_m said:
I don't think 15% is all that unreasonable, to be honest. Typically a manager handles all the bookings, deals with the business side of things, and helps things go smoothly. I'm sure you don't have to look very hard to find managers simply taking advantage of artists, but I don't know the facts in this case. But like I said, 15% doesn't seem exorbitant.
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The business manager usually gets pulled into the artist's personal lives as well and have to ensure everything from the pool being maintained to the exotic cars. Of course the manager doesn't have time to tend to every oil change, so he has employees to do the grunt work, so much of that money goes out as payroll.
 
L

Ladera

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phil_m said:
I don't think 15% is all that unreasonable, to be honest. Typically a manager handles all the bookings, deals with the business side of things, and helps things go smoothly. I'm sure you don't have to look very hard to find managers simply taking advantage of artists, but I don't know the facts in this case. But like I said, 15% doesn't seem exorbitant.
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Yeah, they book shows.

They don't write and sing songs that fans come to the show for.

The people that come to the shows don't give a crap about a manager.

A McDonalds restaurant has a manager and nobody goes there to meet him. They go there to have a hamburger.

If the manager is writing songs he should get a cut, but for only booking a gig he gets 15%. No way.
 
phil_m

phil_m

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Yeah, they book shows.

They don't write and sing songs that fans come to the show for.

The people that come to the shows don't give a crap about a manager.

A McDonalds restaurant has a manager and nobody goes there to meet him. They go there to have a hamburger.

If the manager is writing songs he should get a cut, but for only booking a gig he gets 15%. No way.
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Well, they typically do a lot more than simply book shows. Depending on the artist, they could be involved in the band as a business. Managing payroll, arranging transportation and accommodation, etc. There's a lot that I could see falling under the title of manager. Really, having a manager is what frees artists up to do the things you mention - writing and recording the songs. I can't imagine that many national artists would want to have the responsibility of dealing with the logistics of planning their tours, appearances, and other crap.
 
mikendzel

mikendzel

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I think us discussing how much the manager of an artist is worth, without knowing what the manager does, or furthermore not knowing how much what the manager is doing is worth to the particular artist is simply wild and unproductive speculation.

I think the important thing to take away from this scenario is to never do work for someone, or let someone do work for you, without clear terms in a written agreement prior to the work being started. Likewise, if you enter into partnerships, have an exit strategy agreed upon between the parties.
 
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Charlie48

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Being a creative artist is a business, if you're successful, a very big business. The manager is like a CEO, or maybe a CFO. There are tons of decisions, relationships, deals, hassles, etc. to deal with. They can be enormously helpful, or sharks - and sometimes both. Talk to Leonard Cohen about his manager. But it's hard to imagine most artists running their own show.
 
L

Ladera

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phil_m said:
Well, they typically do a lot more than simply book shows. Depending on the artist, they could be involved in the band as a business. Managing payroll, arranging transportation and accommodation, etc. There's a lot that I could see falling under the title of manager. Really, having a manager is what frees artists up to do the things you mention - writing and recording the songs. I can't imagine that many national artists would want to have the responsibility of dealing with the logistics of planning their tours, appearances, and other crap.
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OK for that amount of work he deserves about 3%. Not 15%.

Writing and recording the songs is 97% of the business.
 
2HBStrat

2HBStrat

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Ladera said:
OK for that amount of work he deserves about 3%. Not 15%.

Writing and recording the songs is 97% of the business.
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If I'm not mistaken I think Brian Epstein, The Beatles' manager, got 25%.......however, he was a pretty good manager.
 
5

5cent

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Ladera said:
Yeah, they book shows.

They don't write and sing songs that fans come to the show for.

The people that come to the shows don't give a crap about a manager.

A McDonalds restaurant has a manager and nobody goes there to meet him. They go there to have a hamburger.

If the manager is writing songs he should get a cut, but for only booking a gig he gets 15%. No way.
Click to expand...
Really? You have NO idea how the music business works, do you?
 
phil_m

phil_m

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Writing and recording the songs is 97% of the business.
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Seems like it's less than 10% to me sometimes... And actually on his debut album, McCreery didn't actually write any of the songs. Supposedly, he did on his sophomore album, but being a Nashville-based country artist, he probably is using a team of people who make a living writing hit songs down there.
 
G

GerryJ

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You can review that David Geffen film from 1-2 yrs ago, when he was promoting Jackson Browne at his early years he'd tell a venue "If you don't book Jackson, Neil Young (who I manage) will never play your hall!"
That Azoff guy w Eagles, Van Halen, etc. Peter Grant w Zep.
I know it was a different era, but I still believe a good manager makes a huge difference in financial matters.
 
guitarplayaman

guitarplayaman

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A manager DOES NOT BOOK SHOWS!!!!!!!!!!! That is the job of the booking agent. A manager would advise the artist on his career, and primarily be the liaison between the label, booking agent, lawyers, special requests, corporate sponsorships...etc. The tour manager would handle the day to day ins and outs of touring...ie hotels, travel, routing, meet and greats etc.....

Any questions?
 
Heinz57Pep

Heinz57Pep

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11,280
guitarplayaman said:
A manager DOES NOT BOOK SHOWS!!!!!!!!!!! That is the job of the booking agent. A manager would advise the artist on his career, and primarily be the liaison between the label, booking agent, lawyers, special requests, corporate sponsorships...etc. The tour manager would handle the day to day ins and outs of touring...ie hotels, travel, routing, meet and greats etc.....

Any questions?
Click to expand...
But that's what wannabes' and weekend warriors' friends and wives do, and they call them managers. You mean it ain't the same in the big time?
 
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