Thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Monty Python team, accountants are seldom associated with the world of rock’n’ roll. But the so-called bean counters have always played an important part in the professional lives of musicians, composers and songwriters and as the business becomes more and more complex, that role is growing.
Far from just performing rudimentary tasks such as book keeping and tax returns, today’s accountancy firms - or business managers, as they are referred to in America - provide a vast range of services often beyond the call of duty.
But things used to be very different. When David Hitchcock founded DBM Ltd 14 years ago, he did so precisely because he could not find the type of accountant he needed when he worked in the creative side of the music industry.
‘I was a record producer in the 60s and 70s,’ Hitchcock tells M. ‘I got through four accountants who were all pretty useless. At that time there were only two music industry lawyers and no real accountants at all.
‘So I retrained in the 1980s to specifically become the kind of accountant that I wanted but could never find.’
you really want your accountant
to be part of your advising team
Hitchcock found work as a tax and audit manager for Ernst & Young which looked after the likes of KD Lang and Duran Duran. He then established DBM: ‘For artists, producers, writers and other creatives - 85% of what we do is music-related.’
With entrepreneurs such as Hitchcock taking the plunge, there are now a number of specialist outfits to choose from and, with the growth in significance of the music industry to Britain’s economy, these days even professional trade bodies recognise the importance of the experts.
Mark Gold of Silver Levene is also a council member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), where he heads the creative industries group: ‘You really want your accountant to be part of your advising team; to be honest and tell you what you should be doing in terms of taxation, investments and living expenses.’ says Gold. ‘We deal with everything from large companies’ royalties down to the individual artists or songwriters.’
That element of teamwork is universally backed up by rival firms, big and small.
Hitchcock notes, ‘Any band starting out should get their team in place while they have the time, because if they become successful, that time disappears.’
‘Accountants are an essential part of any act’s team,’ states Lester Dales of Dales Evans & Co.
make an advance last as long as possible,
it can be three years before the money comes in
He says that much like record companies and music publishers, music industry accountants often have to take a punt on new clients. ‘We like to take on acts when they’re first getting started – for us it’s more satisfying that way. So we have to take a view and structure the fees for when the bands are starting out.
‘Typically, if a band are just signing a record or publishing deal, they might have to buy equipment and insure it, pay lawyers, and put money aside for tax. So we’ll figure out how much money will be left and how long it has to last so that we can advise them on how they will have to get by on it.’
Lionel Martin of Martin Greene Ravden has counted the likes of Madness, the Undertones, Tears For Fears, Teardrop Explodes, Sex Pistols, Madonna and Sugababes among his company’s clients, but agrees that picking up such acts while they are unknown is key to success.
‘Obviously we have to limit the number of clients that can’t afford to pay us,’ says Martin. ‘However, if you’re going to be in the industry, you have to play the game, so we’ll take a risk on representing fledgling artists, but only if they’re going about things in the right way and have the right team around them.’
Tenon Media also deal with unsigned and emerging artists. ‘A lot of what I do involves trailing around the grimmest venues you can imagine,’ says Tenon’s Kathy Johnson.
To assist emerging acts, Tenon organises events such as Lost In Music, an event recently held in London’s Scala venue and featuring Tenon client Damon Albarn, who was able to tell aspiring talent about his industry experiences.
Other names represented by Tenon include Busted, Blur, Gorillaz, Ash and Gomez. ‘We’ve also represented the Pipettes from day one, after I saw them performing in bars in London and Brighton’ says Johnson.
And the influence accountants can have shouldn’t be underestimated. Martin recalls, ‘When I first met Madness, they didn’t know how many of them were in the group and when I asked one of them if he was a band member, he didn’t know. I insisted he should be and, without naming names, I’m glad to say he went on to become one of the group’s more prominent members.’
Hitchcock’s relationship with his clients is so close that one band referred to him as ‘dad’, while others were glad of their accountant’s contacts book when it came to a brush with the law. ‘I had a band that, let’s say, enjoyed life to the full,’ reports Hitchcock. ‘They had been arrested in America, but I was able to use a personal contact, who was a man of standing in that particular local community, to go along and bail them out.’
Busted’s Matt Willis says of Tenon’s Johnson, ‘If it wasn’t for Kathy, the three of us would have been locked up a long time ago for non payment of a thousand bills: we’d’ve been lost without (her).’
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But going above and beyond the call of duty is almost expected. ‘One time I’d been at the rugby all day and got a call at 11 o’clock at night from an act whose equipment hadn’t been allowed on a plane from Brazil to Mexico. So I had to immediately get onto the insurers and try to arrange freight for the equipment,’ says Dales.
He adds, ‘If someone has a problem with a credit card in the middle of the night, then I get woken up. It’s not a nine to five job and we’ve helped arrange weddings and all sorts.’
Artists often rely heavily on their accountants. David Sloane, of Sloane & Co confesses, ‘My wife asked me one morning who had phoned at 3am.
Apparently I’d told whoever it was “Don’t worry, stay in your hotel room and I’ll work everything out.” I still don’t remember the call or who it was, but I assume they solved the problem themselves.’
Sloane’s practice, acts for record companies, songwriters and music publishers. Conscious of just how much musicians rely on his company for help Sloane has a unique department to cater for unusual requests. ‘We have two staff who are employed to book clients’ holidays, airline tickets, buy flowers, you name it. It’s very much a concierge service so that we can be a one-stop-shop. Some clients find it invaluable, others don’t need it.’
we’ve helped arrange weddings and all sorts
Jason Boas, of Harris and Trotter, tells a similar story. ‘We aim to minimise the tax and maximise the earnings of our clients and to 
ensure that they receive all the entitlements from the copyrights they produce.
‘We don’t work nine to five in fact we would say we work 24/7 including Christmas day as there is often a query as to which credit card to use to pay for the Christmas turkey.’
Music industry accountants excel at planning the financial success of their clients and the expertise they have is not universally shared by ordinary book keeping firms.
Martin says, ‘One of the key things we do is plan cash flow. We have to make an advance last as long as possible, because it takes up to three years for the money to start coming in, even if the band is very successful.’
Sloane contends that using that time lapse can generate significant benefits for songwriters and musicians. ‘The music industry is one of the few businesses where you can plan ahead for tax,’ he states. ‘For bands coming in to the UK, we speak to the Foreign Entertainers Unit at the Inland Revenue and work out a deal with them.
With invaluable knowledge to add, finding the right accountant is a crucial step in any songwriter or artist’s career and the dedication that can be found among Britain’s specialist entertainment accountants makes them second to none.
MCPS-PRS offers an accountancy referral service.
www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/mymcpsprsmember
Ten questions to ask a music industry accountant before you appoint them
1. How long have you been in business?
2. What services do you provide?
3. How much do you charge and how often will you bill me?
4. Who else do you represent?
5. Are you affiliated to other firms internationally?
6. How does my manager get paid? Should he/she bill me?
7. How will you keep my group and I informed of our finances and tax?
8. What insurance does your firm have?
9. Will I need to be VAT registered?
10. I’m a songwriter - do you have working relations with MCPS-PRS?