Who does an artist need on their team?

At the start you often do everything at once: music, planning and social media. As you grow, so does your team. These are the key roles:

• Producer: turns your idea into a finished song.
• Manager: plans your career and keeps everyone together.
• Label or distributor: gets your music onto Spotify and the rest. A label often pays for marketing too.
• Publisher: looks after your songs as compositions, for example with GEMA.
• Booking agency: gets you on stage.
• PR and promotion: make sure press, radio and playlists hear about you.
• Content and social media: photos, videos and posts matter almost as much as the music today.
• Music lawyer: checks your contracts before you sign.
• Tax adviser: at the latest when the first real money comes in.

You don't need all of them from day one. Bring people in when there is real work for them.

All figures are rough guidelines for beginners and focus on Germany. They are no substitute for legal or tax advice.