Talent manager in the context of "Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act"

The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent and supply music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who write songs and musical compositions; the singers, musicians, conductors, and bandleaders who perform the music; the record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, audio engineers, retail and digital music stores, and performance rights organizations who create and sell recorded music and sheet music; and the booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew, and audio engineers who help organize and sell concerts.

The industry also includes a range of professionals who assist singers and musicians with their music careers. These include talent managers, artists and repertoire managers, business managers, entertainment lawyers; those who broadcast audio or video music content (satellite, Internet radio stations, broadcast radio and TV stations); music journalists and music critics; DJs; music educators and teachers; manufacturers of musical instruments and music equipment; as well as many others. In addition to the businesses and artists there are organizations that also play an important role, including musician's unions (e.g. American Federation of Musicians), not-for-profit performance-rights organizations (e.g. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and other associations (e.g. International Alliance for Women in Music, a non-profit organization that advocates for women composers and musicians).

Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, and was an early influencer of the punk subculture.

McLaren was brought up by his grandmother after his father, Peter, left the family home. He attended several British art colleges in the 1960s, where he became involved in underground art and left-wing activism. From 1974 to 1976, he operated the Chelsea boutique Sex with his girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, which helped shape early punk fashion and became an early hub for the subculture in London. After a period advising the New York Dolls in the United States, McLaren managed the Sex Pistols, for which he recruited frontman Johnny Rotten. The issue of a controversial record, "God Save the Queen", satirizing the Queen's Jubilee in 1977, was typical of McLaren's shock tactics, and he gained publicity by being arrested after a promotional boat trip outside the Houses of Parliament.

A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. South Korean boy bands usually also have designated rappers. Most boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on stage. They are similar in concept to their counterparts known as girl groups.

Some boy bands are formed on their own, but most are created by talent managers or record producers who hold auditions. The popularity of boy bands has peaked three times: first in the 1960s to '70s, with e.g. the Jackson 5, the Bay City Rollers, and the Osmonds; the second time during the late 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s, when acts such as New Kids on the Block, Take That, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, NSYNC, Five, Westlife and Blue dominated global pop charts; and the latest time in the 2010s up to the present, with the emergence of groups such as Big Time Rush, the Wanted, One Direction, and K-pop acts such as BTS and Seventeen.

Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997) was a Dutch talent manager and concert promoter, best known for having been the manager of Elvis Presley.

Parker was born in the Netherlands and entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old. He adopted a new name and claimed to have been born in the United States. With a background working in carnivals, Parker moved into music promotion in 1938, working with one of the first popular crooners, Gene Austin, and country music singers Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, and Tommy Sands. He also assisted Jimmie Davis' campaign to become governor of Louisiana, for which he was awarded the honorary rank of "colonel" in the Louisiana State Guard.

The Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist was an award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organisation which represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom. The accolade was presented at the Brit Awards, an annual celebration of British and international music. The winners and nominees were determined by the Brit Awards voting academy with over one-thousand members, which comprised record labels, publishers, managers, agents, media, and previous winners and nominees. The award was first presented in 1977.

Robbie Williams won the award the most times, with four wins.

The highest-paid musicians in the world have been reported annually by Forbes since 1987. For measurement, the magazine used pretax earnings—before deducting fees for agents, managers or lawyers. Most of the lists were estimated within a June-to-June scoring period, except for 1999–2000 and 2021 onwards when a calendar year period was used instead.

U2 became the annual highest-paid musician five times, more than any other act. They were also the highest-paid music group in a record eight different years. Michael Jackson became the first musician to earn over $100 million in a year (1989), and has become the highest-paid male soloist a record seven times. Dr. Dre currently holds the record for the highest annual earnings for a musician, collecting $620 million in 2014, mainly through the sales of his headphone-manufacturing company, Beats Electronics.