The Industry According To: Jeff Varner, Revelation Management Group

Thank you for checking out ‘The Industry According To’. This series runs each Tuesday, and features radio and record industry executives, managers, programmers, talent, artists, and professionals from all areas of the business world. To be considered as a future guest, email me at keith90405@gmail.com.

The music industry is massive. Thousands of jobs, companies, brands, and artists, all chasing different goals. Today we visit with Jeff Varner, a highly respected and coveted Artist Manager and business owner who sees all sides of the music industry. Jeff helps guide the superstar careers of artists like Slash, Stone Temple Pilots, Rival Sons, The White Buffalo and many others. You can learn more about his company, Revelation Management Group here.

The New Management Game

Keith: You’ve been in management long enough to see the business completely change, from CD sales to Streams to TikTok to touring. What’s the biggest evolution you’ve seen in what it means to manage an artist today?

Jeff: I think the biggest evolution has been technology. By that I don’t just mean streaming as a way for fans to consume music, I mean technology at large that has affected every sector of our lives. From social media to now AI, the way we live our lives is so exponentially different than even say ten years ago.

As a manager you are always having to look through a very broad lens of how people (fans) live and work and how they enjoy and interact with music in their lives. So, in that sense, being a manager has now become even broader. That requires a much more holistic look at technology and sociology to understand how to best advise an artist or to create marketing strategies for music or touring. 

Managing Everything

Keith: Historically, managers were all about the album and tour. Today, a manager’s bandwidth is stretched further to include branding and partnerships, social, synchs, tracking streams, merch, the rising costs of touring, and even mental health. What’s the most difficult part of today’s “new normal”?

Jeff: I hear that a lot now about how management has started to encompass all of these areas but, honestly, it always has. Yes, of course, there are new challenges and things to learn in terms of connecting fans to music and working with your clients to find and grow their audiences, but that has always been true as technology has evolved throughout the years. Years ago there were only a certain number of ways to release music commercially. Now that has turned upside down. It’s easier than ever to release music but there is a trade-off for that access and ease, which is volume.

It’s harder and harder for artists to be able to break through when there are literally hundreds of thousands of songs released every day and innumerable avenues in which to promote them. That’s both a good and bad thing. So, the hardest part of that “new normal” is that there are less and less broad ways of releasing music (with predictable results) and instead a hyper focus on what makes this artist unique and how best to explore that through marketing. It’s more time consuming. It requires an artist to have an incredible sense of self and ability to communicate what that message is through their music. 

The Streaming Reality Check

Keith: Streaming is the new radio and the new record store and a highly-questioned math problem. From your seat, are artists making real money from streaming yet or is it still a glorified discovery tool?

Jeff: It depends on which artist you are talking about. If you’re fortunate enough to be in that top tier of your genre, whatever that may be, you can do very well. But as we all know that is the exception more than the rule for only a small percentage of artists.

For what I call the “working musicians” out there, or even some genre’s like Rock for example, streaming is an awareness tool and critical as a means to connect to an audience. It’s where the audience is and is a tool in the tool kit. As a revenue source it plays a smaller role than touring and other streams.

As an industry, we did a poor job of adapting early on to the streaming revolution. As such, we don’t reap the spoils to the extent we should be. It’s a common theme in the music industry, we are a loss leader for tech companies to reach market share and spend our time trying to catch up which is always a losing strategy. 

Touring: Gold Rush or Bust

Keith: With touring costs rising but it arguably being the biggest revenue driver, it’s seems almost like the “pay to play” days. Some artists rake it in, while others say the costs of being on the road are no longer sustainable. What’s the smartest touring model you’ve seen that balances profit and burnout?

Jeff: This is such a challenging question because it’s such a challenging time right now for everyone. Costs are going up. Everyone knows that. But ticket prices by in large have not (and I’m not saying they necessarily should) to cover that gap so the net result is less profitability to the point where now some artists can’t tour at all no matter how much they reduce their overhead. When everything from gas to hotels, to tour busses and even crew salaries continue to rise, making a tour anything beyond break even has gotten harder. 

If you are lucky enough to have a catalogue of songs that resonate, things like festivals and other one-off types of tour dates, I’ve found, can be very profitable. It takes the tour “off the ground” so to speak and removes tour busses and trucking, and instead focuses on fly dates and weekend warrior type mini tours that can be more profitable in the long run. Country artists have been doing it this way for years, because it works. If you are a developing artist, that’s harder to do, so you must make sacrifices to make a tour work as a means to growing a fan base.

It’s hard but the benefit touring provides on honing the craft and making fans city by city, night by night and one at a time can’t be minimized.  

The Modern Record Deal

Keith: You see the contracts close-up. Labels have taken plenty of public beatings over alleged deals that aren’t favorable to artists. What deal structures or partnership models do you think favor the artist in 2025? Are there new models you’re favoring at Revelation?

Jeff: This has been one of the upsides to the modern industry, the fact that there are so many creative ways of doing deals now with so many new players involved. We are doing everything from major label deals to full DIY releases and everything in between. It’s a sliding scale with pros and cons but it speaks to that customization I mentioned earlier, the ability to create what works for the artist and for the particular release at the time.

One of biggest things I like to do is retain ownership, whenever possible, on any masters deal. I’m a big fan of licensing for a term with label partners. It speaks to artist advocacy. These days, with a few exceptions, I feel it’s becoming more the norm. It allows artists to own their masters as an asset class. 

What You Look For

Keith: I’ll assume you’re not signing new artists or bands that don’t have great music, but there are countless artists with good music that don’t find good management for various reasons. What do you look for when scouting artists? What tells you this person has it, beyond music?

Jeff: What I look for is an artist or band that really has a sense of self and true artistry, meaning they have a very unique perspective or presentation for not only their music but their whole esthetic. And that has to carry into every action, every social media post, every photo that is released or presentation to a fan base. It’s highly curated, highly specific and should be unique. It’s my job to identify those elements and work with artists to bring that out, to sharpen that focus and present that story to others, to evangelize that story.

If I’m going to do all that, I must really like it. You can’t fake that. We have to keep in mind we are dealing with ART, something that should move you, make you feel something. I can’t do that for an artist, they have to deliver on that element or else it all falls apart. 

The Brand is the Band

Keith: Today, every band is also a brand. How much do you lean into branding early — visuals, tone, socials, persona — versus letting it grow naturally?

Jeff: I think unless that’s your strategy from the start, meaning a project that is designed for things like comic books or ancillary spin offs beyond just music, then you have to just let things progress naturally. This notion that bands are brands can get overly commercialized and lose sight of the fact that bands and artists should have a “cool” factor, something that isn’t manufactured or marketed like a brand. Yes there are those elements that come along, but you can’t replicate or replace cool. It must be authentic.

That’s not to say that you don’t craft what is unique to that band as I stated before, that esthetic, that vibe, what they are trying to communicate, but you are doing that through the lens of art first, brand second? If you get the first part right, the second part will be more authentic. 

The Overnight Illusion

Keith: We all see artists blow-up overnight on TikTok or have that early hit on radio, but it’s often years of prep behind the scenes. What’s the biggest myth about “overnight success” that all new artists need to know?

Jeff: I think there are plenty of examples of overnight successes with little to no prep behind them these days. With Tik Tok in particular, things can explode in a matter of days. I’m not sure how true that holds now. The question is, what does an artist have to do to keep a fan after they get their attention? That is typically where the years of woodshedding and creation pay the most dividends in the long run.

You might get attention really quick for something that goes viral, but what do you have to offer that fan for their time beyond that? If you have a depth of catalogue or interesting backstory and universe to make them want to be a true fan beyond the hype, then you are ahead of the game. “Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.” I really believe in that ethos as a strategy. Be prepared for anything and have something to say if and when that spotlight shines. 

Creative Freedom vs. Commercial Reality

Keith: All artists are different and sometimes their vision may not always lead to greener pastures. How do you balance an artist’s vision with what the commercial market may demand?

Jeff: This is a tough one because ultimately what really defines the commercial market anyway? It’s a constantly shifting moving target. Instead, I prefer to let an artist create what they want to create. I can give input of course and my opinion, but ultimately, it’s the audience that decides whether it’s commercially successful or not.

Despite what anyone may say, there is no real authority on that. It’s trial and error. There are plenty of examples of bands and songs that have come along that seemed less commercial or bucked a trend and then re-set that trend because of their music. If you trust your artist and their ability and can be honest with them when the audience tells you what THEY think, then that’s a healthy relationship. 

Radio’s New Role

Keith: Radio doesn’t break songs or artists like it once did, but it still builds audience trust and validation. How do you view radio’s role today in the grand scheme of exposure, credibility, sales, touring?

Jeff: Radio will always be relevant for an artist, whatever stage of their career they are in. It may not always be airplay in the traditional sense, it may be as a platform for awareness for a tour date in that market or as a platform for awareness that a new album even exists. I tend to look at all forms of radio, from music based to sports, to talk radio, where will this artist fans be and how best can I reach them? Sometimes a great interview on a Sports Talk show can do more than a handful of spins overnight for example. It’s all about awareness and reaching your fanbase where they are, not where you think they should be. 

The Uncomfortable Truth

Keith: What’s the uncomfortable truth about the artist-manager relationship that most people don’t say out loud? Something that might even surprise artists reading this?

Jeff: I don’t know if it’s uncomfortable or not, but the truth is the Manager/Artist relationship is unique in that it’s all day every day. Aside from that artists family, it’s often one of the most frequent people they will speak to in any given day, about a variety of topics from business to personal. In order for that to work, you have to like and respect that person. 

There are a lot of managers out there, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. I do believe there is a “fit” that just needs to be there in that relationship on both sides. You need to have passion for the artist, and they need to believe that you have their best interests at heart and a willingness to fight for them day in and day out. If you have that, that’s a fit. If an artist keeps chasing new management because they think it’s the solution to all their problems, the uncomfortable truth is it’s not.

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