What is the difference between a music manager and label services?

A manager runs the artist's whole career and works for the artist, usually on commission. Label services are the label jobs around a release (distribution, release plan, marketing, PR, radio, playlists) bought by an artist or label that keeps its own recordings.

Does an international artist need a US record label?

Not to start. A distributor can put the music on US streaming services, and label services can run the American campaign while the artist keeps their recordings. A US label deal or joint venture is easier to get once the American numbers are moving.

Is LUSIVEX a management company?

No. LUSIVEX is the label services and PR agency Eshy Gazit founded and leads as CEO. EG Management is his management company, a separate business. A LUSIVEX client is not on his management roster.

Manager, label or label services: what an international artist needs in the US

Artists from Korea, Japan, India and the Philippines ask me the same question in different words. Do I need a US manager, a US label, or one of these label services companies? Usually the answer is all three jobs, at different times, done by different people. The mistake is treating them as one thing.

I have done each of these jobs. I was the US managing partner for BTS from 2016 to 2018, I have managed Monsta X since 2018 and Wonho since 2020, I founded Intertwine Records with BMG in 2021, and I lead LUSIVEX, a label services agency. Here is how I separate them.

The manager runs the career

A manager works for the artist. The plan for the next year or three, which deals to take, who is on the team, what the artist says yes and no to. The manager does not own the music. The manager owns the plan and answers for it.

For an international artist, a US manager is the person who decides how America fits into the whole career. Which year to push, which song, which language, which partners, and how the American calendar sits next to the home calendar. With BTS my role was US managing partner, working alongside Big Hit Entertainment, now HYBE. The label made the decisions at home. My company at the time, Gramophone Media, ran the American side with them.

I wrote more about this job on my international music manager page.

The label makes and releases records

A label deals with recordings. It funds them, releases them, distributes them and markets them. In a traditional record deal the label pays for the project and, in return, owns or licenses the masters for a long term and pays the artist a royalty.

For an international artist the US label question is narrower than people think. Your home label probably already distributes worldwide. What a US label adds is records made for America and a team that works them here. That is what Intertwine Records does for Monsta X: in partnership with Starship Entertainment, Intertwine handles the group's English-language albums, distributed worldwide. Unfold reached No. 2 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart in 2026.

Monsta X also signed with Epic Records in 2019, and All About Luv, sung in English, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in 2020. A major deal came after the American work had started, not before it.

Label services fill the gap in between

Label services are the label jobs, offered to an artist or label that keeps its own recordings. Distribution, a US release plan, marketing and PR, radio, playlists, content. You use the parts you need and you keep the masters.

This is where most international artists should start in America. They already own the music and the home market. What they do not have is an American team. LUSIVEX US label services runs that side: the release calendar, the market plan, and the people who execute it in the US, working alongside the team at home.

LUSIVEX is a separate company from my management company. A LUSIVEX client is a client of the agency. It does not make me their manager.

Who pays whom

This is the simplest way to tell the three apart.

The manager is paid by the artist, as a commission on the artist's income.
The label, in a traditional deal, pays the artist an advance and a royalty, and keeps most of the income from the recordings.
Label services are paid by the artist or the home label, through a fee, a revenue share, or both.

If someone offering "management" wants to own your recordings, they are a label. If someone offering "label services" wants a commission on your touring, read the contract twice.

The order I add them

For an international artist coming to America, I usually see it in this order.

A US manager or US partner first. Someone has to own the American plan and the calendar.
Label services next. The American campaign runs while the artist and home label keep their rights. Television first, then radio, then collaborations with American artists, then arenas. That was the BTS plan, in that order, on purpose.
A US label deal or joint venture when the numbers are moving. By then you are negotiating from proof, not from hope.

Sometimes a label comes first, because the right deal shows up early. That is fine if you know what you are giving up for it. Most of the time, building the numbers first is what gets the better deal later.

What to ask yourself

Who owns my plan in America today?
Who owns my recordings, and do I want to keep them?
Who is going to work my next release in the US, every week, by name?

If you cannot answer the first one, you need a manager. If you cannot answer the third, you need a label or label services. Usually you need both.

Eshy Gazit is a US music manager for international artists. US managing partner for BTS 2016 to 2018, manager of Monsta X since 2018, partner at Maverick Management, founder of EG Management, Intertwine Records and LUSIVEX. Billboard International Power Player 2021 and 2022. Contact.