With intense and extensive power, influence and money in industries that have a global following (ex: Hollywood and the NFL), entertainment representatives have built a reputation of prestige, importance and sometimes even greed. As these industries, and clients within said industries, grow and pull in more money, fame and love from the world, so do these representatives. In this regard, agents and managers have developed certain positive and negative perceptions from various groups of people, both within and outside of the entertainment industry. It is important that as young men and women looking to graduate and enter this career path that we understand that we may not always be perceived the way that we want to be. Though they do command a lot of respect, entertainment representatives do not have an exclusively positive perception.

Depending on who you speak to and what they believe, talent representatives are either very well-respected or greedy individuals who take advantage of others for their own monetary gain. By the very nature of their job description, agents and managers need to be aggressive, talkative, have strong negotiating skills and be able to command respect from those that they work with. Naturally, this abrasiveness and passion can certainly rub some the wrong way. These people include studio heads looking to negotiate with these agents for their clients services, media moguls or anyone else in the business that needs to go up against such men and women. One of these powerful leaders of the management business is Ari Emanuel. Today he owns one of the largest talent agencies in the entire world and has individuals in the business fearing him based on what he brings to the table.

 

Ari Emanuel is described as the most abrasive, aggressive and difficult agent to work with in the industry. However, he is also extremely well-respected. Most in the business agree Emanuel is a brilliant mind and a titan of the industry.

Emanuel is the prime definition of the aggressive, loudmouthed and powerful talent agent that rub lots of others the wrong way.  For instance one TV executive was quoted as saying, “nobody wants to be on the wrong side of Ari Emanuel” and described Emanuel as a “hardball player.” Emanuel is the prototypical type of representative that is respected by those who work with him, but also loathed and feared by those same people.

While this is certainly one perception that people have of talent representatives, there are certainly more positive viewpoints, specifically from actual clients and people not within the industry. Even though clients compensate their representatives out of their own earnings from a particular project, they still maintain profound respect for and hold a lot of appreciation for these managers.

Talent representatives handle almost all of the daily important tasks for their clients in regards to earning their next job and being compensated for it. In this sense, without their representatives, clients would not be able to find their next job and gain any money. This is a fact that is well documented and is one that these talented people have understanding towards. In that regard, because of a manager’s importance to their own livelihood, clients become very close to and have very positive views of these men and women.

It is not just the clients that have these positive views on entertainment representatives either. I am almost certain that most college students, like you and I, have a positive perception of these men and women. Not only are they extremely successful, but they hold such profound influence and power in industries that are so exclusive and interesting. This type of power and skill are characteristics that I hope to see within myself if and when I enter this career path.

Overall, I think it is extremely important for students and others looking to enter this career to understand that not everyone will look at you in a positive light. Though there are these stigmas of aggression and lack of empathy, there are certainly people who have a lot of respect and appreciation for those acting as representatives. No matter how we are to be perceived in our career paths, it is important for this audience to be aware that there are a lot of different ways that we can be perceived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this particular blog post, I want to discuss the logistics of, and the details surrounding one specific path in entertainment management: literary management. When referring to literary management, I am talking about representing clients that are in the business of novels, short stories and other written works being sold for profit. Though an entertainment system in general, representatives of literary clients have a slightly different task than for those representatives of clients in athletics, Hollywood or music.

For the purpose of this specific post, I want to highlight the major similarities and differences between literary entertainment management and film entertainment management. These comparisons and contrasts will touch on daily job duties, expectations and logistics of specific jobs including salary, locations and trends.

While working with clients in the film entertainment industry, it is mostly expected for an agent or manager to work on a day to day basis with studio heads or people higher up in the film business in order to gain jobs for their clients. These kinds of entertainment managers would spend a majority of their days negotiating contracts, setting up potential meetings, networking their clients around the city in order to gain jobs, or traveling with their clients for jobs that required it. Literary entertainment representatives would spend their days a little bit differently. Instead of negotiating with studios and finding and setting up meetings to gain jobs for their clients, these representatives would focus on selling the art created by their clients. More specifically, if a client were to write a specific piece of work, say a novel, it would be the representatives job to sell the rights to this novel to publishers for the best possible deal.

In this regard, the job description of a literary agent is less intensive and strenuous then for other fields, but that doesn’t mean it is any less challenging or rewarding. Furthermore, if a client’s work becomes famous and successful enough, it can be the job of his or her representative to negotiate with the film industry in order to purchase the rights to create a visual interpretation. In the real world, authors like Stephen King and George RR Martin have seen their novels become world famous in a visual art form, including The Shining and Game of Thrones

When looking at aspects of this field, such as salary and hours, it is safe to say that there are a multitude of differences between literary and film entertainment management. For one, since a majority to the money made by a representative comes through commission from the money earned by clients, it is not difficult to understand that the wage gap is prevalent. Since the film industry, and clients in said industry make more money for themselves than novelists and poets alike, representatives money compensation would be affected just the same. Furthermore, since the requirements and expectations for tasks for a film representative would also exceed those of literary representatives, it is clear that hours and expectations for film representatives would exceed those of literary agents.

I believe that is necessary for college students like us nearing graduation and looking to enter this career track to understand the inherent differences between the two types of entertainment management. Based on what particular side a student would find themselves more comfortable with, they would most likely choose a certain career track and that is what I have hoped to achieve through this post.

For this particular blog post, I want to touch on the importance of, and the means in which internships are a useful and necessary experience for college students looking to break into the entertainment management profession. Like any career track, this is one in which experience and exposure to the true nature of the job is vital for young college students who are approaching graduation and getting ready to start their careers. In this post I will attempt to talk specifically about the logistics of these internships, as well as how they can be important in the grand scheme of things for entertainment management.

Depending on what type of entertainment management track one would want to go on (films, music, sports, etc.), the locations of internships for college students are varied. For the purposes of this post, and based on most of them being present in one of these locations, let’s focus on Los Angeles and New York being the home base for these job opportunities. That being said, most of these internships are during the summer months, and can be either unpaid or paid, however most of the time they are unpaid opportunities.

For a detailed list of opportunities for this upcoming summer in Los Angeles from Entertainment Careers, click here. For another strong resource in pursuing an internship in entertainment management, click here.

Internships for college students at the top entertainment firms in Los Angeles are extremely competitive, with companies taking the best and brightest from respected institutions around the country. Companies like CAA, one of the world’s most famous entertainment representative companies in all major entertainment genres, has a very detailed application process, provided above, that allows students to apply for work in major cities around the country, including Miami and Nashville.

While most internships are open to undergraduate and graduate students, I think it is better suited for upper level undergraduates to pursue these internships. While it does not hurt to do it as an underclassman, doing so later into one’s college career would leave him or her better suited to enter the industry after an upcoming graduation.

As mentioned before, having a student internship in entertainment management before graduating is a smart bet for a number of reasons. Not only will it provide great experience and knowledge about this job path before making a career out of it, it would also provide an opportunity to make a lasting impression on those who matter. In other words, hard work in a summer internship would go a log way in ensuring that those making job hiring decisions at various agencies would know who you are, and feel confident that you could provide something to help them. In this sense, internships in this field, as in others, are a means to be hired based on what you can provide in these internships.

Overall, whether or not students feel the need to pursue internships in entertainment management, it is simply important to understand the realities of these internships.

 

 

 

For this post, I want to talk about something a little bit outside of the box in terms of talent management as a career choice. I want to discuss something that I find extremely interesting and how it relates to entertainment management in terms of work: traveling. Like millions of students around the country, I have profound interest and desire in traveling, and fortunately this is a career path that is receptive to said enthusiasm.

With world-wide client lists and international job prospects for said clients, travel is something that is not only accepted in this community, but also necessary at this point. For instance, a “talent agent’s duties involve traveling, and some agents even travel abroad quite a bit when representing non-native clients.” With this growing technological and globalized society, talent agencies have become increasingly international and connected between a multitude of countries. For this reason, it is entirely plausible to believe that an American talent agent could represent, or do business, with someone from Europe or Asia. In this sense, traveling becomes almost integral to ensure that a talent representative does his or her job in the best way possible.

With all this being said, it is without question that a representative would need to travel out of sheer necessity. Whether it be to accompany a client working overseas, to meet with representatives to strengthen a brand, or to partake in necessary negotiations, worldwide travel is a must for any talent agent looking to do his or her job well.

Even with central and home offices located around the United States, agencies have been able to extend their reach into European and Asian markets. Take the situations in Bollywood and the Chinese film market for example. These days, actors and actresses from

these successful areas are being brought to the USA for mainstream film roles and interactions with the United States industry. They are not being assimilated into the business on their own, but are being specifically sought out and brought in by US entertainment representatives. One of these men is Jai Khanna, who has brought in new clients from India and landed them roles in critically acclaimed films like Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi. In this sense, a representative based in Los Angeles or New York would need to be knowledgeable of and willing to interact with and recruit talent from around the world to help their business, and create more success for their agencies.

 

Whether or not a student looking to became involved with the entertainment management business has interest in travel, it is best to understand that it is something that is necessary in the world that we live in. The way the entertainment business is structured today, international talent has become vital for the success of talent agencies in the United States. It is essential to be knowledgeable of this idea, and to accept it as a necessary aspect of the business. For college students reading this blog, it is best to understand that the changing and connecting world that we live in requires us to be involved in travel.

Talent managers and representatives have been at the forefront of the entertainment industry since it became the monopoly power that it is today. These days, the Hollywood, sports and music businesses would not be remotely as strong without the work of these representatives for their clients and for these industries as a whole. With that being said, it is essential for us as students to recognize and understand current and future trends in this field of work so that we will be prepared when the time comes for our involvement in the industry.

It is without a doubt that not only will entertainment representatives be counted on to provide the influence and skill that they have been, but they will expected to do more and more as time goes on. The entertainment industry, specifically the movie and television business, has been growing at exponential rates into a worldwide phenomenon. This has called for agents and managers to take their clients’ influence international and work with studios, experts or leaders from around the world. This expansion of duties, as well as necessity for knowledge of the desires and life on an international scale, means that the job description for talent representatives is going to get a lot more intense and their influence a lot higher.

Another reason that this particular field has been trending up in recent years concerns the expansion and collectivization of the entire industry as a whole. What I mean by this is that while even twenty years ago there were various companies that represented clients, and a distinct separation between the different industries that include music, films and sports, nowadays that has all been done together. More specifically, there are now giant companies with hundreds of employees that represent thousands of people, and further interaction and representation between the different forms of the entertainment industry.

With this collectivization of entertainment companies, and a large amount of interaction and support of the various entertainment industries, the job of a talent agent would not only become more important, but more demanding as well. For example, a representative who works with an athlete client may say his or her necessity increase because perhaps their client would want to make the move into a different type of entertainment, like films of television, in accordance with what they are already partaking in. If that were to occur, it would mean that an agent or manager would have to have the essential knowledge of said industry, connections within that industry, and the influence to make their client’s wishes come true.

There is little doubt that the future for an entertainment industry looks promising. There is also little doubt that while that future is promising, there will also be a lot more demanded out of a representative from clients as well as companies looking to hire said clients. It is important for a student such as yourself to understand that the job will be challenging, but also very rewarding at the same time. All in all, future trends that we have noticed for this particular industry show that entertainment management looks like a strong field for students to enter in the future.

 

 

 

For this third blog entry, I thought I would stray a little bit from what I have been talking about in previous posts concerning education and professional logistics of entertainment management. For this installment, I want to profile a man that all of us college students looking to break into this industry should study and look up to for inspiration: Ari Emanuel. Today, Emanuel is strongly considered one of the top two most influential and powerful agents in the entire entertainment industry. With A-list clients like Mark Wahlberg, Oprah and Martin Scorsese, it is not difficult to understand why it is vital for us students hoping to graduate soon to learn about how this man came to be what he is today: a titan of the industry.

Emanuel cultivated a modest path to where he is today, with no special education or professional connections to vault him to the top of the food chain. Instead, he attended the very small Macalester College in Minnesota for his undergraduate degree, and did not pursue higher education. Instead, he decided to pursue his goals quickly and moved to Los Angeles where, like all other agents starting out, he began working in the mailroom at CAA, one of the biggest agencies in the world. After becoming an agent after 3 years, he bounced around from various agencies including CAA and ICM until leaving and starting his own management agency known as Endeavor in 1995. All of Emanuel’s professional and educational history up to today are recorded on his Linkedin page, provided here.

While all this above may seem ordinary and uninteresting, Emanuel’s true genius began with the creation of his own agency: Endeavor Talent Agency. Known as an aggressive and goal-oriented man, Emanuel decided to do anything he could to become the “King of Hollywood“. In 2004, this hope was on its way to becoming a reality when Emanuel, already with one of the most powerful agencies in the world, decided that he wanted to expand and merge with IMG, which had a large sports representation base. It took over ten years to do so, but in 2014 Emanuel helped purchase IMG for about 2.5 billion dollars and became the co-CEO of the largest talent representation agency in the world.

An article documenting this merger and the background behind it was written by Vanity Fair in March 2015 and can be found here.

“Last spring’s $2.4 billion dollar merger of WME and IMG could be Ari Emanuel’s dream come true.”

-Vanity Fair, March 2015

I feel that it is vitally important for college students like us to truly understand and appreciate what Ari Emanuel was able to accomplish. It goes to show that even with no special or extreme higher education, and an ordinary start, anyone can rise to become one of the most important people in this industry. Hard work, a concrete goal and an innate desire to achieve that goal are all things that can push us towards our ultimate desire of success in the entertainment management business. Though we still have a little bit of time left in our undergraduate lives, it is never to early to create a set of goals that we hope to achieve in our professional futures.

 

 

 

 

 

My last post, given here, talked mostly about what it takes to break into the field of entertainment law and management. I want to take a different route with this blog and what you all can expect when you break into today’s management environment. To do so I believe it is best to break this post down into three comprehensive sections: details about the top agencies in the country as well as individual job data and facts. Though two differing ideas regarding the entertainment management business, all are integral in understanding the current, and future, nature of this lucrative and growing business.

Top Agencies

Depending on what kind of entertainment management you want to break into: sports, film, literacy, music, etc., top agencies differ. IMG|WME and CAA  are renowned as the leaders of the sports industry, while UTA and CAA are recognized as the top agencies in terms of hollywood film and TV production.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, IMG and WME, two giants in the management business merged in 2014 for over 2 billion dollars and created one of the largest agencies in the entire world. The company has over 4,000 clients, including the likes of Ben Affleck, Rihanna and Maria Sharapova, as well 5,000 employees spread over 25 countries. Below is an intriguing article regarding the finances behind both companies before and after the 2014 merger, which netted the company over 450 million dollars.

IMG | WME

The Creative Artists Agency is recognized as one of the giants in the film, television and sports avenues of the entertainment management industry. Since its founding in 1975, CAA has grown into a powerhouse, with over 5,000 clients, 1,500 employees and megastars such as Robert Downey Jr., Peyton Manning and Jennifer Lawrence. As of 2015, the company is noted to be worth about 5.39 billion dollars.

A third powerhouse of the entertainment industry is UTA, which was founded in 1991. With over 3,000 clients and just about 500 employees, the company is less of a monster than both CAA and WME|IMG, but is still one of the world leaders in the film and television business. Some of the most notable clients for the company are Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Channing Tatum.

Individual Job Description

In this individualized section, there are a few things that I would like to touch on, including compensation,  job locations and quality of life. How a talent agent or manager is paid is based on a combination of commission and overall salary. Oftentimes, they are paid a percentage based commission, usually between 5 and 20 percent, of a client’s particular contract, whether it be a film, sports contract, advertising or appearances. However, in accordance to this commission, they are also paid an annual salary. Compensation varies heavily based on experience, title and skill.

“Starting agents can expect to earn $50,000 to $65,000; more senior agents make around $200,000; partners make $400,000 to $700,000; and board members — like CAA’s Bryan Lourd and WME’s Patrick Whitesell and Ari Emanuel — can earn as much as $10 million.”

–Hollywood Reporter

As you can guess, those in the entertainment management business usually operate out of cities where entertainment is the highest. Some of these cities, besides the obvious choice of Los Angeles, include New York City, Miami and Chicago. The location of one’s job relies heavily on what kind of entertainment one is involved with. Just like salary, quality of life while working in this industry is heavily based on seniority and experience. While starting out, managers work extensive hours with low level clients for little money, but once gaining experience and notoriety, quality of life no doubt improves tremendously.