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What is a talent management agreement?

A talent management agreement is a contract under which a manager or agency represents an artist, creator or streamer for a share of their income. It is not an employment contract, although courts look at actual control, not the label.

Also known as: Management contract, Artist management agreement, 经纪约, 经纪合同

Updated

The Chinese industry term is 经纪约 (jīngjì yuē), short for 经纪合同 (jīngjì hétong, “management contract”). It is an industry label, not a category defined in statute; the same goes for 全约, 半约 and 商务约 below, and the rights and duties in each case depend on the contract terms. This entry explains terms and is not legal advice.

What types of management contract are there?

Management contracts differ mainly in scope: a full-scope contract covers all of a person’s professional and commercial work, a partial contract covers part of it, a brand-deal contract covers only commercial partnerships, and a project agreement covers one job.

Type Chinese Usual scope Check before signing
Full-scope, usually exclusive 全约 quányuē All performance, brand, livestream and content work, handled exclusively by the manager Revenue split, each side’s duties, who owns accounts and content, termination terms and penalties
Partial 半约 bànyuē Part of the work, such as acting only, or one platform only What is inside and outside the contract, and how outside income is treated
Brand-deal only 商务约 shāngwù yuē Sourcing, negotiating and running brand partnerships Commission, exclusivity, whether the talent may take deals directly
Project agreement 项目合作 xiàngmù hézuò One project or event Deliverables, fees and payment, rights after the project

Term, exclusivity and revenue split have no statutory standard; the parties agree them.

Is a talent management agreement an employment contract?

Usually not. It is a commercial contract between independent parties, and whether an employment relationship exists depends on how much control the company actually exercises, not on the contract’s title.

  • China. In Guiding Case No. 239 (released December 2024), the Supreme People’s Court held that where an agency exercises weak control over a performer’s working hours, work content and work process, the performer need not strictly follow the company’s labor rules, and the performer has strong bargaining power over matters such as revenue sharing, there is no dominating labor management and therefore no employment relationship. Courts have also described performer contracts as special commercial contracts combining features of intermediary, agency, commission-agency and service contracts, with long-term, personal and cooperative characteristics (Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, case (2019) Hu 01 Min Zhong No. 14952, published by the court on its account at The Paper, July 2022).
  • United States. For tax purposes the IRS weighs all evidence of “the degree of control and independence” in three categories (behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship), and no single factor decides (IRS). States and other countries apply their own tests.

In practice, the clauses on working hours, content assignments, attendance and revenue sharing say more about the relationship than the title does. The legal nature of the contract affects whether either side can end it early and how penalties are assessed, which depends on the specific terms.

What is a sunset clause in a management contract?

A sunset clause requires the artist to keep paying the manager a commission for some time after the agreement ends.

Sunset commissions can run at the full rate indefinitely, or step down to lower rates over a set number of years and then stop; the length and rates are negotiated (The Music Industry Lawyer). The term comes from Western music management. In Chinese creator contracts, the comparable post-termination questions are usually the penalty for early termination (违约金, wéiyuējīn) and who keeps the accounts.

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