Where do managers come from anyways?
Consider the suddenly popular band from any city, featuring four guys banging out original rock songs that appeal to the college crowd.  Who’s the manager?  Where did he or she come from?  The manager is probably the person in the band that knows the most about business, or he’s the mate from school that has some sort of degree in business, or she’s a friend that just knows business.  

Chances are, the first manager of every band has been schooled, trained and practiced in the art of competing.  And, depending on his or her personality, he or she may have the innate desire to simply snuff the life out of infringing competitors.  After all, crushing the competition is what capitalist typically do.

I’ve heard more than one manager talk about blowing the doors/socks/shorts off other bands playing on the same ticket as his band.  Is this the right attitude?  Is this the person that you want managing your band?  I believe the answers are NO and YES.

There are many instances where having a winning attitude, a competitive spirit, or even a crushing drive is important in every business.  However, in the music business, more so than other businesses, I believe you have to know when to uncork your inner Gordon Gekko.

Try putting 1,000 washing machines into an iPod…
Think about this:  It doesn’t matter if you sell washing machines, cars, computers, software, swimming pools, web design, or just about anything else or earth, you’re probably only going to make one sale per customer / per opportunity.  In just about every product category you can think of, a sale for you…is NOT a sale for your competitor(s).  Music is different.  Fans are capable of loving you and dozens or your “competitors” equally and simultaneously.  Moreover, music is just about the only category where customers switch between competitors every 3.6 minutes.  Blogs are the only thing I can think of where switching occurs faster.   

Crush your competitors if you know who they are...
If you are blowing the doors off the bands you are playing with on any given night, you are probably loosing the competition.  Huh?  The real competition is not between bands.  The real competition is between entertainment categories.  If your band is far better than the bands you gig with, you may be loosing the competition to attract fans away from other forms of entertainment.  The best strategy is to put together the finest night of live music possible, a night of live entertainment that can compete with everything else in the city that’s vying for the attention of your target audience.  

Who are you competing with on the Internet? 
First, you have to understand what you are competing for.  You are competing for the “disposable Internet time” that every consumer has.  This is the time that people allocate to using the Internet for things not related to work.  People spend their disposable Internet time on various forms of entertainment.  In a previous post, I argued that your standalone website and your MySpace profile can’t compete on the Internet with these other forms of entertainment; that you will have to “brand together” (cooperate and partner) with other artists if you want to be entertaining / competitive on the Internet. 

Battle of the bands, it’s not competition, it’s a recruiting event…
Too many young managers look at band battles as…battles.  It’s nice to be liked, but the business reason to participate is not necessarily to win.  Band battles are interviews for your band, and for the bands that you may want to join forces with (see previous sections).  When you look at these competitions as recruiting events, everything changes; you go from being a competitive manager to the friendliest guy in the room.  

Is this the person that you want managing your band?  Yes
Hopefully, I have given you a new perspective to pitch to the manager of the band; without changing who he or she is inside.  Competitiveness has a use when it comes to things like collecting money at the end of the night, negotiating timeslots, negotiating rates, and especially when it comes to poaching fans away from other forms of entertainment.  I would love to hear your thoughts on cooperation versus competing; especially in regards to the perspective that new managers should adopt to achieve success in the music business.