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This is my opinion and of course I am biased. I am a manager for a few music projects. I also do management on a couple of businesses that I own. So this could help inspire me to believe management in necessary. Another factor is that without management my businesses would not run properly. I truthfully believe that management is needed for your music project to run successfully.

Lets ask ourselves. What is management?

Well when you think in terms of running a McDonalds. You have a series of cooks making burgers and fries. You have cashiers running a drive through, taking customers orders, and fulfilling them. Then you have a manager overseeing this entire operation, making sure everything is going smooth and that the business is continuously making money while there is customer satisfaction. This is the duty of the store manager. Above him would be your general manager. The chain of command would continue to go up and thats the story of management.

You must be asking yourself.. what the fuck does Mcdonalds have to do with managing my band.. Well, the operation is basically the same. Your manager is your representation.

What are the duties of a music manager?
Responsibilities of a music manager are often divided among many who manage various aspects of a musical career. With an unsigned act, music managers may assume multiple roles: graphic designer, publicist, promoter, and handling money and finances.

The reason having these things covered by a manager is needed...is because this is a lot of shit to do. Its a heavy responsibility that takes a certain type of salesman to conduct. The responsibilities of the musician themselves are pretty heavy as well. It is the musicians responsibility to maintain a ton of the creative aspects of the business and when that creativity is hindered by emails and phone calls, we might have a problem with our product. Therefore we hire a manager to take care of these functions for our business.

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Scams.

We all know the typical "pay for play" agent trying to sell their shows. Sometimes this can be a good way to get promotion for your band. Sometimes you are being scammed into paying a scumbag. A good manager will lead you away from these types of business dealings. A good manager never asks for money up front unless they are simply giving you consulting, in this case there might be a minor up front fee. A majority of traditional managers will be offering a percentage of money taken from money that they make you. Managers are given a snakey name for many reasons in the same way used car salesmen are given a bad name. There are scams in most businesses of all types. There isn't always a bad case when working with managers, in fact in my experiences the need for a manager in a project is dire and it helped to open the door to success. Always be careful of ANY contracts you are given. Be sure to have them read over by legal representation. I can always recommend a good music lawyer for you, if need be. Be sure you are fully aware of anything that you are getting into and a good manager should discuss in dept what is going on.