Are teams important in the entertainment industry?

Teams are no longer optional in today’s workforce; they are a necessity. Assembling a team is a crucial step in building a career, especially in the entertainment industry because artist-manager relationships are vital. As we move into the “digital age,” teams are even more important than before because the music industry is launching more music technology, and it takes more hard work and dedication to stay ahead and profitable. So how do you stay ahead in this industry? On a broader spectrum, teams from every music company must unite to form entertainment conglomerates. Has consolidating worked in the past? Yes. Independent labels such as rap and alternative rock were added to the major-label fold. This proved to be a wise move for the music groups. Branching out and seeking help from other teams in the industry can lead to a lot more success.

Respected philanthropist Andrew Carnegie said, “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or get all the credit for doing it” (Nasaw, 2006). It is nearly impossible to be a talent agent, personal manager, or business manager on your own. Although doing it alone may give you a quick start and seem to save you money, it is not a good idea in the long run.

Effective team leaders must have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish because that vision becomes the energy behind every effort. It is important to develop a team of people who share the same dreams and passions as you. Essentially, dreams are realized and carried out through unity.

In putting a team together, you should obtain team members according to how well their particular skills match a given element of work. Choose a team based on their skills and experience, not their accessibility. Since the entertainment industry is one of the most competitive industries out there, it is pivotal to have a team with the skills to thrive in a challenging and nontraditional work environment. It is also of utmost importance to choose those that get along with a wide variety of people.

Of course, people do not follow a vision in itself. They follow the leader who has a vision and the ability to communicate that vision effectively. Communication is a vital tool in every organization, and in the entertainment industry, e-communicating is spreading like wildfire. But, e-communicating does make it more difficult to monitor exactly what your team is doing, so you must oversee your team’s work more frequently. The team leader must keep the lines of communication open with his team. This means having more meetings in person, making more phone calls to check in, and participating in conference calls on a weekly basis. Teams should actually over-communicate. Over-communicating is very valuable because it provides relevant information and details such as expectations and accountability. Trust and respect within your team can easily be broken if communication does not happen. It all boils down to this: there success is your success, so do your best to communicate with your team (Hollingsworth, 2009).

Nasaw, David, Andrew Carnegie (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006), pp. 54–65.

Hollingsworth, C. (2009, April). Five ways to make or break your team. PM Network, 23 (4), 52‐57. Retrieved from http://www.pmnetwork‐digital.com/pmnetwork/ 200904/?sub_id=puGXsH65qK2Q