An entertainment agent does a lot to help their clients’ rise to the top. No matter what type of entertainment industry you are in, an agent plays a valuable role. When you need gigs, your entertainment agent books you gigs.

When you need to meet with the press, go on tour, or even simply have a photo shoot, your agent makes sure it happens.

What you may not know are the numerous other jobs your agent performs on your behalf. These are the jobs that may not be as glamorous but are still necessary for your success.

Roles of an Entertainment Agent

Below are seven duties your entertainment agent performs, even if they don’t get the credit or payment.

• Creating and packaging deals
• Accountant duties
• Team manager and liason
• Counselor duties
• Diffusing potential issues
• Collaborating with others and networking for you
• Working as an influencer

These are seven duties and tasks that your agent will do for you on a daily basis to ensure that you can meet your goals.

The Packager

Entertainment agents are known to pair artists to get you the best deal possible. For example, if a movie studio is looking for a director and an actor, and an entertainment agent represents both, he or she may create a combination deal.

Meaning, they will offer the studio an actor and a director together, but not as individual artists. They allow the studio to hire one, but not without the other, and they usually do this while at the same time getting more money for both of you.

Or, if you are a musician, your agent could pair you with other musicians to perform at a gig. Two incredible musicians are always better than one. Agents can convince venues, promoters and everyone else in the industry which package deal will create the best performance for the fans.

They will also make sure the package brings in more money for everyone involved.

The Accountant

Ask any entertainment agent and they will tell you that at some point, they have acted as an artist’s accountant. Maybe not the tax preparation kind of accountant, but the kind that writes checks on behalf of the artist.

Or, the kind of accountant who deals with a performer’s accounts payable and receivables. The kind that balances checkbooks, pays staff, makes debt payments, and holds on to all records and receipts so you are prepared at tax time.

The Team Builder

Entertainment agents do their best to make sure everyone in your posse is getting along and working together cohesively.

This means they act as a liaison between everyone on your staff, solving problems and keeping your relationship agreeable to avoid dissention before performances.

Entertainment agents may even implement specific activities to help you strengthen the bond between you. Writing sessions, acting classes, and even fun vacations may be the well thought out plans of your agent.

The Counselor

Who listens to you when you are having troubles with members of your group? Your entertainment agent. Who do you lean on when you have had a rough day and nobody on your staff seems to care and your family is a thousand miles away? Your entertainment agent.

Not many performers have time to seek cognitive behavioral therapy or support groups each week. So, you confide in your agent. They know you the best. And they have your best interest at heart. Your agent, on many occasions, will provide you with confidentiality, allowing you to express yourself.

The Diffuser

Trouble happens. Sometimes you create your own trouble, sometimes it just finds you. Either way, your entertainment agent is the one who puts out the fires, calms volatile situations and cleans up anything that could be slightly damaging to your career.

For example, you spend a wild night on the town after an opening night. You let everyone take photos of you. The media is going to have a field day reporting your partying ways. Your talent agent knows exactly how to handle this situation so that your career and reputation stay on a positive course.

The Collaborator

Working with other stars in your industry is a terrific way to boost your career. If you are an up and coming country musician and you get to open for Luke Bryan, his fans will notice. If you are a rising rapper and you are seen with Lil Wayne, people will take interest.

Your entertainment agent knows the right collaborations to increase your popularity and they know how to make those collaborations happen.

They know the agents of the more famous artists. They may even be representing some of those more famous artists. If this is the case, it will be a lot easier for them to match you with the right performer, at the right event, at the right time.

The Influencer

Entertainment agents must have knowledge on how to influence hundreds of thousands of people. They have strategies to implement that get you noticed and get you new fans. These strategies are used on social media as well as in other forms of media.

They work with reporters to get you the right publicity, and with magazines to get you the cover, the center and anywhere in between. They work with charities to help you promote your cause.

Social media may be the best use of an entertainment agent’s influence. It is hear you can gain thousands of fans in one day, with little to no money. Agents know which photos to post, which content to share and which videos to stream.

If you look at the celebrities with the most online influence, you will see that everything they share online is perfectly timed. This is most likely because their entertainment agent is doing his or her job. They even find ways to make you even more money by influencing big brands to use you in online ad campaigns.

Entertainment agents do not get paid for each of these duties. They do them because they want you to be successful.

If you are successful, they are successful. Good entertainment agents have a passion for their work and when asked, they are likely to tell you they enjoy it so much it doesn’t even feel like a job. That’s the one you want on your side.

Jason Swartz

Jason Swartz is the President and Founder of Alliance Talent, a world-leader in the entertainment business. Growing up in Los Angeles with a passion for music, he took his local childhood concert business and made in an international concert booking company. Specializing in entertainment booking, social media branding and monetization, and music publishing, Jason was the first to scale social media monetization for the music industry across Facebook. Today, he runs Alliance Talent, a leading entertainment company and concert promoter; focusing on concert bookings, talent representation, brand management, and social media monetization.