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The Manager's Playbook

The Manager's Playbook

Inside the Playbook: Tom Windish on How to Build a Music Agency

Aug 21, 2026 · 17m

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About this episode

Tom Windish joins The Manager’s Playbook to talk about the business behind booking, building an agency, and what it actually takes to grow artists in the live music world. In this clip, Tom shares how he went from promoting college concerts to becoming a booking agent, building The Windish Agency, scaling the company, and eventually selling to Paradigm. He also gets into the early days of electronic music booking, promoter-agent relationships, artist services, and the hard reality of management. For artists, managers, agents, and aspiring music executives, this is a real look at how live music careers and music agencies get built from the ground up. Simply put, a conversation like this…