[Bertis Downs Management Styles]

I think it just depends on each person. There are all kinds of styles of management. There are all kinds of management companies. There are these boutiques that have a few acts and a small staff. There are big ones that are almost like a major at this point. And they have bigger staffs, many, many more acts. And then there are people like me, and there are a few, that just really have essentially an act that they stake their future with, that they’ve devoted themselves completely to. That just seemed the way to go for me.

I was always really involved kind of on a holistic level, on an overall level, with our guys. And I wanted to do the teaching and living here in Athens. So it just kind of seemed the way it evolved for me. But I have friends who are in one of those sort of small midsized boutique type management situations and some people I know that are in the much bigger ones, and it works. I don’t know that there’s a definite answer for that. I see people being successful or not at all those different possibilities.

I do think that management companies, this is kind of a trend in the last few years that I think is going to continue. I think management companies are going to get more and more essential to breaking acts because they can get involved early days with artists at all the various levels of their career, the touring, the publishing, the merchandizing, the records, the production end of things. For that matter, if they decide to do movies and commercials and that kind of stuff. Somebody who’s a manager who gets involved with an act early, supports them early on, invests in them early on, is probably gonna be in that position with that act as the act grows, hopefully breaks and gets more popular.