Product & Artist Management

Jorge Bettencourt

Product & Artist Management was our month six course.  Our Leadership Portfolio for this month was to go out and interview a professional product or artist manager.  This assignment for me was very useful in getting to know the true story of a personal hometown hero.  The artist manager I interviewed was Jorge Bettencourt, who grew up in a large family in my hometown of Hudson MA.  Jorge Bettencourt, who now works with my mother at Hewlett Packard, was the manager for his brother Paulo’s band Flash and more famously his brother Nuno’s band Extreme, who had the hit song “More than words”.  Nuno is also now the lead guitarist for Rhianna though Jorge does not manage him anymore.  Jorge and I spoke on the phone for more than an hour discussing his role as an artist manager for the only person in my hometown who is considered to be a true celebrity with chart-topping music.  I had long considered the possibility of going into artist management as a career for myself, but Jorge was quick to shed a realistic light on heading down that path.  Jorge said he’s glad he did it and enjoyed life on the road, but also explained the downfalls.  Jorge was constantly stressed out as an artist manager, was always dealing with problems from the band, labels, and promoters, and was even left by his wife because of the schedule and lifestyle that comes along with the profession.  Jorge offered to buy me a drink sometime when I’m back in town to discuss my own career further and see if he can connect me with some very powerful hitters in the industry.

Nuno Bettencourt

Again, this assignment was extremely helpful in giving me all the insight I could possibly ask for regarding artist management.  However, this assignment was also personally helpful in finally hearing the full story of a family I often only heard rumors about growing up in my suburban hometown.  This was another assignment that maybe didn’t help my weaknesses along as much as others, but was still a very worthwhile project for a Leadership Portfolio.  The fact that Jorge offered to buy me a drink and help me in my own career when the whole point of this assignment was to get in his good graces and learn about his career was very humbling.  Surprisingly, my strength of being able to effectively communicate with people might hold even more weight than I originally thought.  I was able to get someone who I look up and was asking a favor of to turn the tables and want to know more about me and what I do.