What legal form should an artist management agency in India use?

Most established agencies register as a Private Limited Company under the Companies Act 2013 because it separates promoter liability from the roster's cash flow, allows issuing shares to co-founders and CxOs, and makes contracts with sponsors and OTT platforms clean. Early solo agents often start as an LLP or a sole proprietorship and convert once retainer income stabilises.

What is the standard artist management commission in India?

Fifteen to 20 percent of the gross booking fee is the most common band for live-performance commissions. Sponsorship and endorsement deals typically run 20 to 25 percent. Recording royalties are lower, at 10 to 15 percent. The commission is on gross before TDS but usually after GST when the artist is registered.

What GST rate applies to artist management commission?

Artist management commission is a business support / talent representation service and attracts 18% GST. In the CBIC Scheme of Classification of Services it maps to SAC 998599 (other support services n.e.c.) or SAC 996111 (services provided for a fee or commission or on contract basis on wholesale trade) depending on how the invoice is structured. Neither is under the reverse charge.

How does TDS work between the agency and the artist?

The client deducts TDS on the total booking fee under §194J at 10% and pays the net to whichever account is on the invoice. If the invoice is in the agency name, the agency then pays the artist their share after deducting its commission, and the agency itself deducts §194J TDS on the artist's share since agency is a business making a professional-fee payment.

How to Start an Artist Management Agency in India

Starting an artist management agency in India is straightforward on paper — register a company, sign three or four artists, take a cut on their bookings — but the operational reality is a paper-heavy business built on trust, timelines, and getting the tax right on every rupee that moves. This guide walks through the legal setup, commission bands, contracts, and the GST / TDS mechanics that most first-year agencies get wrong.

Picking the legal form

Three structures cover 95% of agencies in India. Each has a real trade-off, not just a tax one.

Sole proprietorship

You register a GST number in your own name, open a current account, and go. Zero incorporation cost. Personal liability is unlimited — if an artist sues the agency, your house is inside the perimeter. Fine for a solo agent representing one or two acts as a side business. Not fine once retainers or advances start moving through the account.

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

Registered with the MCA under the LLP Act 2008. Two or more partners, limited liability, cheaper compliance than a Pvt Ltd. LLPs cannot issue equity, so if you plan to bring in co-founders, hire a CxO on ESOPs, or take angel money, you will end up converting to a Pvt Ltd anyway. Common for two-founder agencies for the first 2–3 years.

Private Limited Company

The industry-standard form for any agency that plans to scale a roster past 10 artists or take investor money. Companies Act 2013 registration, minimum two directors and two shareholders, board and AGM formality, mandatory annual audit. Statutory compliance costs a few lakh a year — a real drag at ₹50 lakh turnover, immaterial at ₹5 crore. Sign contracts as the company. Every OTT, brand, and festival will send you a "please share your CIN" line in their vendor onboarding form.

Commission structures the industry actually uses

There is no legal ceiling on commission. The market bands below are what agencies quote and what artists sign, but the specific split is negotiated per artist and per revenue line.

Revenue line	Typical band	Notes
Live performance	15–20%	Gross of TDS, after GST
Brand endorsement	20–25%	Longer negotiation cycle
Film / OTT playback	10–20%	Depends on royalty vs flat
Music-label royalties	10–15%	On artist share only
Merchandise / D2C	15–25%	On net revenue, not gross
Sync licensing	20–30%	Higher effort per deal

The artist representation agreement

The agency's most important legal document is the representation agreement with each artist. This is the contract that decides whether you can enforce commission if the artist takes a call directly and does not tell you. Six clauses that decide the case:

Scope of representation. Exclusive across all revenue lines? Exclusive for live only? Non-exclusive with right of first refusal? The narrower the scope, the harder to police leakage but the easier to sign new artists.
Term and territory. India-only or worldwide. Two or three years is standard for the first term. Auto-renewal on notice, not automatic.
Commission rate and revenue lines. Line-item table, not a single percentage. Different rates for live, endorsement, royalty.
Sunset clause. When the artist leaves, do they still owe you commission on deals you sourced but that close after they leave? Six to twelve months is the market norm.
Deliverables of the agency. Minimum activities per year — say, six pitches, one PR release, one photoshoot, one strategy call per quarter. Without this, the artist has no cause to fire the agency for non-performance.
Termination and dispute resolution. Arbitration seat, notice period, and what happens to advances the agency has paid the artist against unbilled work.

GST on agency commission

Agency commission is an 18% GST supply. Two SAC options depending on how you structure the invoice, and both are 18% — the choice does not change the rate but does change which head your revenue sits under for accounting.

SAC 998599 — Other support services n.e.c. This is the cleanest fit when the invoice reads "artist management services for the month of [month]" as a retainer or a per-deal fee.
SAC 996111 — Services provided for a fee or commission or on contract basis on wholesale trade. Used when the invoice reads "commission on booking of [artist] on [date]".

Neither of these is under reverse charge. The agency charges GST on its invoice and pays it forward. The recipient (buyer or artist) claims the input credit if they are GST-registered and the service is for a business use.

Common mistake to avoid. Some agencies invoice under SAC 998596 (event, exhibition and convention services). That code covers event management — the physical staging and production of an event — not talent representation. Using it invites a scrutiny query about whether your business is actually staging shows.

Worked example: a ₹5 lakh booking

Buyer pays artist (or agency)	₹5,00,000
Artist GST @ 18% (SAC 999631, registered)	₹90,000
Total invoice from artist side	₹5,90,000
Agency commission @ 20% on ₹5,00,000	₹1,00,000
Agency GST @ 18% (SAC 998599)	₹18,000
Total agency commission invoice	₹1,18,000

TDS between buyer, agency and artist

Two flows exist depending on who invoices the buyer directly. Pick one at contract signing and stay consistent per artist — mixing them is what creates 26AS reconciliation pain later.

Flow A: artist invoices, agency invoices artist separately

Buyer deducts §194J TDS at 10% on ₹5,00,000 = ₹50,000 and pays ₹5,40,000 to the artist. Artist then pays the agency ₹1,18,000. Agency deducts §194J at 10% on the ₹1,00,000 commission = ₹10,000 — wait, no, that's wrong: the artist is paying the agency, so the artist deducts TDS on the agency's commission, not the other way round. Artist deducts ₹10,000 and pays the agency ₹1,08,000. Both TDS entries land in the respective 26AS.

Flow B: agency invoices buyer, artist invoices agency

Buyer deducts §194J TDS at 10% on ₹5,00,000 = ₹50,000 and pays ₹5,40,000 to the agency. Agency pays artist their ₹4,00,000 net share after retaining 20%, but the agency must deduct §194J TDS on that ₹4,00,000 payment to the artist = ₹40,000, and pay ₹3,60,000 to the artist. Artist reclaims both TDS entries in the return.

Flow A is cleaner because the buyer already has the artist's PAN and the artist's 26AS shows the full booking fee. Flow B is cleaner for the agency's own books because it treats the whole ₹5.9 lakh as revenue and the ₹4 lakh to the artist as cost.

The operating reality

Numbers aside, this is what actually consumes an agency day:

Enquiries never balance. A booked date generates three or four enquiries that were declined because that Saturday is taken. Every declined enquiry is a soft yes for the next month, so your CRM stage list has to distinguish "lost" from "date-blocked, revisit next quarter".
Advances move slow, refunds move fast. Buyer advances take 10–20 days to clear. Refunds when a show cancels are demanded the same day. Keep 30% of running deposits in a liquid fund, not the current account.
Riders drift. The same artist's rider changes every quarter — new monitor engineer, dietary shift, family member on tour. Version the rider and store the latest one against the artist record.
Statements are the retention tool. A clean monthly statement showing gross booking, GST, TDS, commission, and net pay to the artist is why artists renew. Artists leave agencies over sloppy accounting more often than over commission percentage.

Where MyShowPage fits

Every part of the flow above — enquiry to invoice to per-artist statement — is one record in MyShowPage. Agency mode gives you a roster, a shared CRM, per-artist payout ledgers, and a commission report that closes the month in an hour. Read for agencies for the full feature list, or read our TDS guide to see the same 26AS math worked in full.