Pollstar Live! One-On-One With Jamie Cheek of Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, Inc.

– Jamie Cheek

Jamie Cheek of Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, Inc., handles the budgeting and financial planning for artists and their teams at every level of the business, and he has had a very busy last couple of months.

Cheek jokes that he has been talking with some artists more in the last several weeks than previous years combined. In a normal world, he is helping artists and their teams (managers, production managers, tour managers especially) stay within their budget, plan for expenses and just generally be financially successful.

His work has gotten much more complicated these days, as the shutdown has completely stopped artists from playing live shows, which normally provide the vast majority of revenue for his clients.

He sat down with OVG President of Media & Conferences Ray Waddell to discuss what the money is like for artists at all levels, how his work is going, and where the business is headed from his perspective.

Among other things the two discuss how some artists that are able to tour at the upper-levels of capacity, particularly in country music, are able to keep 15-20 people on fixed salary year-round, and many of those artists are still keeping their people on salary, even as there is no work for them, but he is one of the minds thinking about how feasible that will continue to be as the shutdown continues to extend.

The interview is part of the Pollstar Live! And Venues Now Digital Sessions, more of which can be found here. To receive notifications for more content from this series, click here.