The Oracle: What comes first: manager or record company?

A – How you pick your team of advisors can either set you up for life or assure you a place in oblivion. So you must be very careful and personally pay attention to this process. It’s common knowledge that most artists don’t like to deal with this stuff, but it’s your career and your money and you have to do this sort of thing every now and then. If you pay enough attention to this (and also have a bit of luck), you can pick the right people from the start and you can then concentrate on the creative side of things and the let them look after the business side, with you just checking up periodically.
Normally you would get a manager onboard first or failing that a lawyer. It’s usually the job of these two to help you get a deal with a record company and publisher and then negotiate the terms of those deals. Your manager is the single most important person in your professional life. A good one will do wonders for your career and a bad one can destroy any promise you might have. He/she will help you with major career decisions, the creative process, promoting your career, assembling a professional team around you, co-ordinating your concert tours and pounding on your record company and publisher if needs be.
From your question, it sounds as though there is a potential manager looming in the background. If this manager already has experience in the music business then his input on any contract negotiations could be very valuable. If this is the case then it might well be worth your time sitting down with him now and negotiating the heads of an agreement. The heads of an agreement is a formal precursor to a contract and is a summary of the pertinent details of that contract. It is invariably a few pages long and is usually drawn up by a lawyer. Once this has been agreed and signed your manager can then get involved in negotiating your recording contract. The full management contract can then be put aside until after the recording contract has been sorted. But remember, a manager usually gets 20% of your earnings so you have to be confident that whatever he/she brings to the negotiating table, and ultimately your career, is going to be value for money. If you’re not convinced of this, then leave him on the sidelines until the deal is done and dusted. But whatever you do you must get a lawyer with music industry experience to assist you with the recording contract. That is vital.
If on the other hand your potential manager has little or no experience of the music industry then it’s unlikely he will bring anything to the table when negotiating your recording contract. Again, in this situation I’d be inclined to leave him out of all negotiations for the moment and go ahead on your own but hire that lawyer with music experience to help you get the right deal for you from the record company. A lawyer will invariably charge you an hourly rate and so won’t be looking for a 20% share of your advances, which is what a manager will be looking for.