Key performance dimensions of the 'well-tempered musician’: a framework for artist management

Cartwright, P. A. and Küssner, M. B. and Williamon, A. (2021) Key performance dimensions of the 'well-tempered musician’: a framework for artist management. International Journal of Arts Management, 23 (2) pp. 18-29. ISSN 1480-8986 (print)

Abstract

Artist management or mentoring is generally recognized as a fundamental challenge and as a contributing element in an artist’s success. This article takes the position that artist management should go well beyond the confines of standard business practice focused on traditional management, marketing, accounting and finance, extending into multiple dimensions of artist identity. That is, although the managerial tendency might be to focus only on matters related to what are identified as career skills, broadening the managerial vision by implementing our holistic perspective enables artists and managers to gain a better understanding of strengths and weaknesses. In this article, the requirements of artist management are broadened and deepened. We identify seven dimensions, or touch points, of artist identity as captured in the Performance Profiling Framework (Williamon et al. 2017). The rationale and definitions for the seven skill types investigated in our survey and the focus on reporting data from five currently active professional musicians are summarized in the third section of the article. The analysis illustrates individual perspectives on the skills described in the Performance Profiling Framework, as well as, for context, general descriptive statistics for our sample of 85 professionals.

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