Title: Agents & Agencies

What am I describing?

No, I am not thinking of software development but of music. A very large number of people enjoy music in some form or other. A very considerable number of people learn to play some form of musical instrument. Quite a number try some of the other skills required, composing, conducting etc. A small number of practitioners earn some sort of living from music and a tiny number make a very substantial living from music.

Now think of the way that musicians and allied trades earn their livings. Let us focus for the moment on orchestras. For success an orchestra needs a conductor but it also needs good solo players as well as a much larger number of good, disciplined performers who do exactly what they are asked to do.

How are these people paid? Well if it was industry, the conductor would have to be paid most because s/he is in charge. It would also be the ambition of most if not all soloists to gain promotion to the status of conductor. Fortunately the world of music has more sense and pays good conductors for being good conductors. It also pays good soloists for being good soloists. The leader of a section of an orchestra is rewarded for that extra skill. A good orchestra works together; the timpanist doesn't waste time practising the trombone, the woodwind section doesn't try to do the job of the first violins etc. Of course, being human, there will be tensions and rivalries but on the whole they respect each other's skills and expect to be paid for the contribution they make to the whole.

A conductor may demand that a piece be played loudly or quietly, fast or slow and so on. It is not the job of the conductor to tell the players how to play faster or louder. Most musicians would be more than a little irritated by a conductor who told them such things, not least because the conductor would probably be wrong. A great soloist might discuss interpretation with a conductor as a matter of professional courtesy.

How do musicians find work? How do orchestra's and other groups find work? Think about that. They don't spend precious practice time phoning round to see if they can get someone to employ them. Groups have managers to do that. The manager is paid for being a good manager. The manager has some knowledge of music but is unlikely to be more than a very poor performer; that is not what s/he is being paid to do. Managers of orchestras, quintets etc. earn their living by being good at finding suitable work for their musical groups and taking care of all the administrative details so that the musicians can focus on performing music.

What about the individual musicians? Here I am thinking of those that wish to earn money by performing. Most, if not all, will have an agent/manager. The agent will find work and take a cut of the fees negotiated. Generally this cut will be a fixed proportion of the fee so that the higher the fee the more the agent earns. Agents will handle a number of clients.

There are also the other kind of agency that specialises in finding musicians to fill a vacancy. These are working on the other side of the fence. Their concern is the needs of an orchestra, the requirements of a soloist for a backing group etc. If I need someone to play in the second violins in my orchestra I would go to that kind of agency. On the other hand, if I am a relatively successful performer I would employ an agent to look after my financial and other contractual interests. An agency that regularly sent trombonists for jobs as clarinettists would not last long be in business. An agent that failed to keep his stable of performers in regular work would soon find that the performers found themselves other agents.

There is a well-developed infrastructure dedicated to placing musical performers into suitable work (of course, being artistic often does not pay very well). If I decide that I want to try to pursue a career as an oboist, I first have to persuade an agent that I have sufficient skill to be employable. Of course I will have to take whatever work my agent can get me but it is in both our interests for my agent to move me on to better paid work as my skills and experience warrant it. However note that my agent is working for me and not for potential employers.

This whole structure is not unique to the music industry; many other professions have similar ones.

Now relate the above to software development. Good managers deserve to be paid more than poor ones. Managers should tell their development teams what is to be achieved and can certainly criticise poor workmanship if they can identify it. However we should not expect managers to tell programmers how to program. We are paying programmers to do that.

When it comes to pay and employment, isn't it about time that we had some agents to look after finding employment and negotiating our remuneration. They should be people who have a (financial) interest in our success and professional development. They should understand what we can do. I am greatly in favour of agents paid on a percentage basis, it couples my success to theirs. On the other side, employers need proper agencies that understand that sending a Visual Basic programmer for a position as a COBOL programmer is a waste of everyone's time.

Jobs that are a mixture of talent and skills acquired by training need a very different employment structure from the one we currently have in the software industry.