An article on Variety tells us that Linkin Park's management firm, The Collective, has ceased providing music management services altogether to focus entirely on digital content creation. The company first started up its music management wing in 2005, and Linkin Park became one of their clients the following year after leaving their previous agency, The Firm, along with their then-manager Rob McDermott. The band have been The Collective's biggest client ever since, as part of a roster that also included acts such as Billy Talent, Toni Braxton and Slash. Band member Mike Shinoda has been quoted saying that Linkin Park will be using this turn of events as an opportunity to move to self-management and assemble their own "in-house" management team. This major move will see the band having more direct control over their staff and their career than ever before. Source: Hypebot via Filip
Well, for some reason I think that this is a good thing for the guys. Being self-managed, with an indoor staff, as Mike said, could only bring good things. I mean, The Hunting Party was self-produced, so, they'll have more 'freedom', I'm predicting? I've always admired them for being themselves and doing what they want, so this news kinda leaves me with a good feeling.
Only time will tell if the band is really ready to manage themselves, but I think that this could be a big step towards the band going independent from their major label
This is very interesting, will this mean that LP will have more control over the singles for the next album?
Not really. "The manager's main job is to help with determining decisions related to career moves, bookings, promotion, business deals, recording contracts, etc." The label still holds the final say in "No we need another Burn It Down type song" situations. Though management does help with negotiating that sort of thing. And honestly if LP felt like they were being represented properly by The Collective they probably would have ditched them pretty quickly.
That confuses me. Why would they ditch them if they were being represented properly? Anyway I hope this is good news. The band seem like good managers to me, does this mean they'll be able to choose the singles they want to release now? I heard they didn't make that decision.
Please everyone be aware that self management =/= self producing/independent recording. Management moves along the lines of promotion, tours, etc.. While the other is releated to music labels.
This. All this will do is give LP more direct control over certain business decisions, promotions etc. It won't have any impact on how they produce their albums, release or record them (except for perhaps negotiating contracts). Now personally, I've dealt with both The Firm and The Collective over the last 8-10 years and they were both great companies and great at what they did for the band. With LP personally handpicking who they include in their management team now, I can only imagine it getting better .
Considering they're hand-picking, I don't think there's going to be an application process...but nice try .
By all accounts I've heard, LP has been pretty happy with their team at The Collective over the years. Wouldn't surprise me if their new "in-house" team is largely made up of former Collective employees. This probably won't amount to any major changes on LP's side of things, although the news that The Collective is ending their management division came out of nowhere.
Speaking to employees at The Collective a few times with AltWire, they've been both courteous and professional. Hoping that LP decides to hand pick some of them for their 'self-management'.
I can't wait to see what the future of Linkin Park will bring. I'm hoping for some really bizarre and crazy stuff on the next album regardless of genre; their most ambitious album yet.
Likely a typo. It was probably supposed to say "weren't" As for singles, the band are still beholden to their label but I think that self-management could be a big stepping stone towards being able to operate without a major label
The question is, would they really want to though? Record sales aren't everything, but there's really not that many examples of independent bands acheving success at the level of Linkin Park. The 'Artifact' documentary that 30STM did touches on this.