The EMMA report confirms what music managers already know: too much of the industry still runs on risk, patchwork and personal sacrifice
The latest findings from the European Music Managers Alliance (EMMA) should land hard with anyone serious about the future of live music.
They do not describe a marginal problem. They describe a system that still asks music managers to carry too much risk, too much responsibility and too much invisible operational weight.
EMMA’s Music Management in Europe - 2025 Report puts evidence behind what many managers already feel every day: the job has expanded, the pressure has intensified, and the infrastructure around live music has not kept up.
As Jess Partridge, Executive Director of EMMA, said in EMMA’s own article on the report findings:
“Managers are at the forefront of an emerging artist-centric music business, and they play a crucial role in developing and sustaining new talent. However, as the results of our pan-European survey demonstrate, they are often holding the fort in the most challenging of circumstances – working long hours, investing their own money and at significant personal risk. Managers are not service providers, they are creative and entrepreneurial business builders, and they need greater support if the European music market wishes to compete at the highest level.”
That is the crux of it.
Managers are building careers, holding teams together, making live activity happen and often underwriting the process personally while the wider system remains fragmented.
Managers are doing far more than “management”
Modern music management is not a narrow advisory role.
Managers are expected to oversee strategy, touring, negotiations, budgets, marketing, wellbeing, logistics and the endless operational detail that sits behind every viable live opportunity. In practice, many are acting as strategist, operator, organiser, negotiator and investor at the same time.
The problem is that too much of that work is still happening across disconnected systems.
Bookings live in one place. Supplier conversations in another. Budgets somewhere else.
Key dates in a spreadsheet. Files buried in inboxes. Important decisions are slowed down by admin rather than informed by good visibility.
That kind of fragmentation does not just waste time.
It makes live work harder to scale, harder to manage and harder to make profitable.
Better support has to mean better infrastructure
There is no question that music managers need better recognition, better access to finance and better policy support. EMMA is right to keep pushing those arguments forward.
But the conversation should not stop there.
If managers are effectively running micro-businesses in a pressured live market, they also need better systems to work in.
That is where GIGNITE fits.
GIGNITE is a platform built for the real mechanics of live music. It connects artists, venues, promoters, managers, agents and suppliers in one place, helping teams plan, organise and manage gigs and tours with more visibility and less friction.
For managers, that means fewer disconnected workflows and a stronger operational grip on the moving parts that affect timing, cost and delivery.
It means:
better oversight across gigs, tours and related activity
less duplication between planning, sourcing and communication
easier co-ordination with venues and suppliers
clearer visibility over details that affect margin and execution
a more scalable way to support artists without scaling chaos
This is not about replacing a manager’s instinct or experience.
It is about backing that judgement with infrastructure that actually reflects the complexity of the job.
Why this matters now
The UK music sector is worth £8 billion and supports 220,000 jobs. The opportunity is there.
But if artist development is still being subsidised from managers’ own pockets, and if live operations are still being held together through fragmented tools and manual workarounds, the industry is making sustainable growth far harder than it needs to be.
Managers should not have to act as the missing infrastructure layer between artists, venues, promoters and suppliers.
A more connected ecosystem means less wasted effort, better decisions, cleaner co-ordination and stronger commercial outcomes. It also means better data: the kind that helps the whole live sector work more intelligently over time.
That is one of the core ideas behind GIGNITE.
Connect the workflows, connect the people, reduce the friction and the entire ecosystem becomes more usable.
A smarter next step for music managers
The EMMA report should be a wake-up call, but it should also be a prompt.
Music managers do not need more rhetoric about resilience while they quietly absorb the cost of broken processes. They need infrastructure that matches the scale of the role they are already performing.
If you are managing artists and want a more connected way to plan, organise and oversee live activity, join GIGNITE with single ARTIST account for free - or an INDUSTRY account to manage a roster.
Explore the platform at gignite.live
GIGNITE™️ - Built by music industry pros & touring specialists
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