Mariann Krott: "A career is built over years, not around one record or one season"
Mariann-Cathrin Krott is a highly experienced music industry manager with over 20 years of expertise in international artist management, touring, booking, and event production. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with internationally recognized artists and some of the most established names in electronic music, managing global touring schedules, bookings, logistics, contracts, and relationships with promoters and industry partners.
Her career includes key roles in artist, tour, and booking management, having worked with artist such as Paul van Dyk, Giuseppe Ottaviani, Genix, Robin Schulz, HUGEL, Pretty Pink, and many others. She has also collaborated with major agencies, festivals, and music brands including CAA, Anjunabeats, Armada Music, Tomorrowland, Transmission, and World Club Dome.
With a background that spans artist development, international touring, large-scale events, public relations, and strategic partnerships, Mariann brings a deep understanding of both the creative and business sides of the live music industry.
You have worked with artists at very different stages of their careers, from emerging talents to internationally established names. What makes you recognize that an artist has the potential to build a lasting career rather than simply enjoy a successful moment?
For me, it is never just one successful release, one big booking or a moment of hype. I think you start to recognize long-term potential when an artist has consistency, a clear sense of who they are and, most importantly, the willingness to keep moving forward and developing even when things are not progressing as quickly as they would like.
Talent is obviously important, but there are many talented people. The artists who build lasting careers are usually the ones who are adaptable, professional, willing to listen (especially to things they don’t want to hear! ;) ), accept constructive criticism, and still know what they want creatively. They understand that a career is built over years, not around one record or one season. Consistency is key – as it is with most other things.
I also pay a lot of attention to the person behind the artist. You go through so many highs, lows and stressful situations together that work ethic, communication and how somebody handles difficult moments can tell you just as much about their long-term potential as the numbers can.
When you are developing an artist’s career, how do you balance creative ambition with the commercial realities of bookings, touring, fees, and market demand?
I think that is one of the main jobs of management—to be the bridge between those two worlds. The artist needs room to create and have ambitions that may not always immediately make sense on paper.
At the same time, you cannot ignore the realities of the logistics and administrative work behind the scenes, such as touring, particularly touring costs, routing and the difficulties that may come along with that (especially in today’s world), ticket sales, fees, or the entire field of marketing and promotion.
I usually try to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes accepting a booking that is not financially perfect can make sense strategically. Sometimes saying no to something that looks impressive on paper is actually the better decision for the artist long-term. Not every opportunity needs to be taken simply because it is there.
The goal should be to give the artist as much creative freedom as possible while building a structure around that creativity that is actually sustainable and helps move the career forward not just in the moment but long-term.
You have worked with artists across trance, progressive, melodic, EDM, and other areas of electronic music. How much does the management strategy change depending on the scene and the audience surrounding an artist?
Quite a lot, although the basic principles do not really change. A trance audience, for example, behaves differently from a more mainstream EDM audience, just as a progressive or underground audience has its own culture, promoters, venues and expectations. The release strategy, the right festivals, the territories that matter and even how quickly you want to grow an artist can be completely different.
I don’t think you can take a strategy that worked for one artist and simply copy and paste it onto another one. That applies to genres just as much as personalities.
What does stay the same is the foundation: understanding the artist, understanding their audience, being consistent, building genuine relationships and making decisions that fit where that particular artist is trying to go.
After coordinating tours and bookings across so many countries, which markets do you currently find the most interesting for electronic music, and are there any regions you believe will become increasingly important in the coming years?
What I find interesting is that electronic music has become so global that it is becoming harder to speak about only a few important markets.
Europe will obviously remain incredibly important, and North America continues to be a major market, if not the number one market in the world, but what interests me most is seeing strong local scenes develop in places that may once have been treated as secondary touring markets.
Latin America is certainly interesting, and I think parts of Asia and the Middle East will continue becoming increasingly relevant as audiences, promoters and event infrastructure develop further.
At the same time, I would never enter a territory simply because someone says it is the next big market.
You still have to look at the individual artist. A territory can be fantastic for one act and make absolutely no sense for another. Data can tell you where people are listening, but you also need promoters, venues, ticket buyers, fans, and the right local partners to turn that interest into not just a sustainable touring market, but eventually into a profitable one.
A manager often has to make difficult decisions that an artist may not immediately agree with. How do you handle those moments while maintaining trust and protecting the relationship between artist and management?
I think trust is built long before you get to that difficult conversation. If an artist knows that you are consistent, that you communicate openly and that your decisions are genuinely being made with their long-term interests in mind, then you can disagree without damaging the relationship.
I will always explain why I see something differently. Sometimes that means showing the logistical or financial reality behind an idea, sometimes it means looking at what a decision could mean six months or two years from now rather than just tomorrow.
But management also cannot become about controlling an artist. Ultimately it is their career and their vision. My job is to give them the best information and advice I can, be honest even when that answer may not be what they want to hear and then find a way forward together.
You spend far too much time together and go through far too many difficult situations for that relationship not to be based on genuine trust and communication. And in the end we all have the same goal.
You have built relationships with major festivals, labels, promoters, and agencies such as Tomorrowland, Armada Music, Anjunabeats, Transmission, and CAA. In an industry built so heavily on personal connections, what turns a professional contact into a long-term partnership?
Reliability. This industry is obviously built heavily on relationships, but having somebody’s phone number or meeting them at an event is not really a relationship. Long-term partnerships come from repeatedly showing people that they can not just trust but rely on you.
Do what you say you are going to do. Communicate when there is a problem or issue – things and mistakes happen. Be respectful and understanding of everybody involved, not only when you need something from them. And don’t disappear after a successful show only to come back six months later when you need another favor.
Some of my most valuable professional relationships have developed over many years and many different situations. Quite some have even turned into actual friendships. Eventually you know how somebody works, they know how you work, and there is a level of trust where you know that even when something goes wrong—and something always eventually goes wrong—you will find a solution together.
We’re always stronger and more successful together as a team, which does not just include the artist and management, but everyone involved, including promoter teams, venues, business partners, and of course the fans.
Touring has become increasingly expensive and complex. Do you think the traditional model of constantly flying artists around the world is still sustainable, both economically and practically, or will the touring business have to rethink itself?
I definitely think we have to become smarter about it. International touring is not going away, nor do I think it should. There is something very special and magical about an artist being able to perform in person for audiences around the world. But constantly flying back and forth for individual shows is becoming increasingly difficult to justify economically and practically. Not to mention physically and mentally draining.
Flights, hotels, production, visas, immigration requirements and local transportation have all become more complicated, extensive, and expensive, and one cancelled flight or one delayed visa application can suddenly affect several shows or an entire tour.
Touring has always required adaptability, but right now I think that is more important than ever.
Having worked both with electronic artists and on productions involving names such as Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, what did the world of large-scale pop and rock touring teach you that you later brought into electronic music?
Scale teaches you very quickly that nothing happens by accident. Yet, we’re talking two very different types of touring here.
When you are around productions of the size of a rock-pop concert or even tour, you see just how many departments, people, schedules and technical details have to come together for those few hours that the audience actually sees. Everybody has a responsibility, communication has to be clear, and preparation has to begin long before the artist walks onto the stage.
That experience definitely reinforced how important structure and advance planning are for me and the entire team involved in any type of tour schedule. It also taught me that no detail is really too small. The bigger the production becomes, the more one small problem can affect ten other things.
The electronic dance music industry can sometimes operate with much smaller teams and the even more challenging part when it comes to routing in that specific branch of the industry is, that you have a lot more long-distance travel to consider in a much shorter period of time.
Big scale productions usually follow a more efficient routing in one area, compared to a DJ tour, where you at times may hop between different continents in one weekend, even different countries in one day. Making routing and traveling a much more difficult task to complete and maneuver.
So generally, a lot of that same mentality applies for each type of touring: prepare properly, respect every person behind the scenes and at least try and have a plan for what happens when the original plan stops working - which basically means you really need to learn how to improvise when needed.
Today, artists can see streaming figures, ticket sales, social media engagement, and countless other statistics almost instantly. When you evaluate whether a career is genuinely progressing, which indicators matter to you beyond the obvious numbers?
For me, one of the biggest indicators is whether people keep coming back. Is a promoter who booked the artist once asking for them again? Are festivals moving them to a stronger position? Are new territories opening naturally? Is the audience becoming more loyal rather than simply larger? Are the relationships with labels, promoters and agencies becoming stronger? Those things tell you a lot.
I also think you have to look at whether the artist is actually developing. Are they becoming more confident in who they are? Is the music getting stronger? Can we make better decisions because we are no longer chasing every opportunity?
Numbers are useful and obviously we look at them, but numbers can spike very quickly or even mislead at times. A career is something you see developing over time. To me, sustainable demand, repeat relationships and continued creative growth tell you much more than one impressive statistic.
After more than two decades in the industry, you have witnessed artists, genres, platforms, and business models come and go. What is one principle about artist management that you believed at the beginning of your career and still believe just as strongly today?
That people and relationships matter. The industry has changed enormously since I started. Platforms change, genres change, technology changes and the way we consume music changes. But at the end of the day, you are still dealing with people.
I have always believed in being consistent, staying calm, doing the work and treating people properly. You cannot control every flight, every piece of weather, every technical issue or every change in the industry. What you can control is how you respond and whether people know that when there is a problem, you will be there trying to solve it.
That principle has probably become even stronger for me over the years. And generally we are all always stronger and better together as a team.
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