Current Challenges of Product and Artist Managers

The current state of the entertainment industry is constantly changing and with that comes many challenges along the way. Product managers, and even artist managers, are constantly having to adapt the ways they execute their plans to penetrate their desired target markets. Through my own person experience, I have seen some of these problems firsthand. While working at my prior employer, Testronic Labs, I would often times find myself engaging in conversations with product managers that would explain some of the difficulties they have had trying to figure out ways to bring digital products to market. Since there are so many different avenues, nowadays, to distribute film and TV shows, product managers are faced with the task of monetizing various physical and digital formats.

Film and TV shows are not the only two facets of the entertainment industry that are going through major struggles in the globalization of the digital era. Recently, I was in contact with a colleague of mine that is a product manager for a company called Ematic. The company creates and markets their own version of Android tablets for specific niche markets. Within the past year and a half, the company released a product called “FunTab Pro” which is a tablet that is designed and marketed towards a younger audience. When speaking to the product manager who designed the product, he described the experience as being a very “challenging and rewarding business venture.” In a brief interview I had with the product manager, we talked about all of the different obstacles he had to overcome in order to make this dream a reality. One of the biggest problems he faced was trying to make sure that everyone involved with production was on the same page. The entertainment industry, as a whole, is faced with many new struggles almost daily.

An article I found online describes the some of the key challenges almost all members of the entertainment industry are currently being faced with. It describes that “not only do companies need to shift from physical to digital technologies and change their business models to include all the new digital platforms, but these new challenges imply that companies must change the way they manage their workforce and the way they function to meet even greater consumer expectations.” Within the article, it describes four key challenges: “Extra effort to stay competitive in a globalized marketplace, An added challenge in maintaining leadership, Extra vigilance for the public (and published) opinion and A new kind of workforce = new pipeline challenges.” All of these give a great example of the kinds of things both product and artist managers need to be aware of for when it comes time to promote their products, services and artists.