management contract

A management contract describes an operating relationship, not a representation deal. A talent agent negotiates deals with third parties on someone’s behalf; a creator agency runs an account it does not own and is paid out of what that account earns. That difference decides what the document has to settle. Almost every dispute in this market comes back to a term nobody wrote down: what the percentage applies to, who keeps the files, and what happens to access on the day it ends. This page describes what these agreements normally cover. It is not legal advice, and what any clause is worth depends on the law where each party sits. That part belongs with a lawyer.

What does a management contract have to cover?

Six families. A clause you cannot point to is a term you do not have.

Family	The question it has to answer
Services	What the agency does, and what it explicitly does not
Pay	The rate, and the base the rate applies to
Term	How long it runs, and how it renews
Exclusivity	Which platforms and which accounts are covered
Ownership	Who holds the content, the accounts and the credentials
Exit	Notice, handover, and what is settled after the last day

The pay row is the one most often written badly. A rate settles nothing until the clause names the base it applies to: what fans paid, or what the platform left; agency commission sets out why those two diverge every month. Write the base into the clause, and see revenue split for the order the deductions run in.

What do term and exclusivity actually bind?

Term binds time; exclusivity binds scope. They are usually confused because they are usually negotiated together.

• Term. A fixed period, an open-ended arrangement with notice, or a fixed period that rolls over unless someone cancels. The rolling version is the one that reaches a lawyer, because nobody reread it on the day it renewed.
• Exclusivity. Whether the creator may work with another agency, and whether the agreement covers one platform or every account she has. An agreement silent on new platforms will be read differently by each side the moment one opens.
• Notice. The number that makes the term real. Without it, “open-ended” means whatever the party leaving decides it means.

Who owns the content and the accounts?

The creator, in almost every arrangement. The contract exists to confirm it rather than to create it. The account is verified against her documents and pays into her bank account, which no clause can transfer; see identity verification. What the agency holds is delegated access and, sometimes, a licence to use content for promotion. Write down what that licence covers, whether it survives the end of the term, and who keeps the raw files.

How does a management contract end?

Cleanly, if the exit clause was written while both parties were still happy. It needs to answer four things: how much notice each side gives, when access is removed and by whom, how sales made before the last day but paid after it are settled, and what happens to material the agency produced. Walk the whole set of clauses row by row with the creator agency contract checklist, then have a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction review the result before anyone signs it.