
As part of the Music Management Principles module, I chose to research into Jonathan Dickins. Dickins is acclaimed for his role in managing British music artist Adele and the creation of management company, September Management which has a roster of 21 artists. I decided to research Dickins because he is a modern music manager who is currently very relevant within the industry - particularly as he received the Manager of the Year Award in 2016 at the Artist and Manager Awards.
Dickins is from a prominent family within the music industry, with his grandfather co-founding NME, his uncle the ex-chairman of Warner Brothers and his father and sister both agents for popular acts such as Adele, Bob Dylan, and Diana Ross. This led Jonathan to gain experience working with his family within different record labels such as WEA Recordings and leading him to develop his own September Management in 2006.
He began working with Adele shortly after, being introduced to her by Nick Huggett a representative at XL Recordings who Adele signed to. They quickly developed a strong relationship, with Adele stating at the Artist and Manager Award ceremony (linked below) that one of his best qualities was that he made her laugh.
This helps us to determine what kind of manager Dickins operates as. He very much values personal relationships with his artists over an exclusively professional and controlling relationship that traditional managers from the past may have taken on. This is evidenced in an interview with Billboard where he states...
' I don't really think "us and them" situations work in the music business. Were very much a team. All of this "I hate the record company," banging-the-desk old school management style doesn't work in the modern era. I want to go into the record company and feel from all the people in the record company that it was nice they all felt a part of it. When everybody feels part of the project, everybody works a little bit harder for you.'
Bibliography:
http://www.musicweek.com/management/read/adele-s-manager-jonathan-dickins-to-be-honoured-at-artist-and-manager-awards/066061
http://adele.wikia.com/wiki/Jonathan_Dickins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg0gh2Txre8
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1098880/exclusive-adeles-manager-jonathan-dickins-talks-grammys-2012-tour-plans
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