News

What’s your name?
Mark Adams

Instagram username
@blindingtalentinsta

Where are you based?
London / Surrey

How long have you worked in Management?
19 years

Who do you manage now?
At Blinding Talent, I manage a diverse roster of independent artists including My Life As A Moth, Catlea, Sabina Beyli, Honeybadger, Molly Warburton and UCHAYE.

Where did you find your first client and what inspired you to take them on?
My first client came through my work as Head of Music at Kerrang! TV in 2007. I was approached by a metal band called Forever Never and was excited by the challenge of moving from music programming into artist management. In my first year with them, I managed to secure a support tour with Stone Sour, which was an incredible experience.

What does a good/bad day at work look like for you?
A good day is when the strategy lands, whether that’s an editorial placement shifting streaming numbers, a piece of content connecting with audiences or an artist benefiting from a piece of advice.

A bad day is when everything becomes reactive and you’re firefighting instead of building. The industry moves incredibly quickly, so the challenge is staying proactive and keeping the strategy moving forward.

What has been the highlight of your management career to date?
Launching Blinding Talent in 2020, at the height of COVID, and seeing it grow into a sustainable independent management company is what I’m most proud of.

Along the way, highlights have included signing Molly Warburton as our first artist, seeing Honeybadger reach one million organic streams and watching D3LTA achieve millions of streams and sell out shows across the UK and Greece.

What do you think are the big challenges for a manager right now?
The platform economy is incredibly noisy, so artists need a joined-up strategy across social, streaming and live. Touring costs are also putting increasing pressure on independent and emerging artists.

AI is another major change. At Blinding Talent, we see it as a tool to use deliberately, while keeping the artist relationship and strategic judgement human first. I also think the professionalisation of management is increasingly important as managers are responsible for people’s careers and livelihoods.

What music are you currently listening to?
Twat Union, Stella Lefty and Ella Langley, plus plenty of Olivia Dean and Sienna Spiro.

Why would you recommend the MMF?
I completed my MMF Artist Manager Certification in 2026, and it helped formalise the knowledge and standards that underpin sustainable artist management.

I’d recommend the MMF for both credibility and community. Having access to a network of managers who are serious about doing the job properly and willing to share their experience is incredibly valuable.

Mark is also an MMF Certified Manager, recognising his professional knowledge and experience as a music manager.

What has been the highlight of your management career to date?

Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one. The real highlight is the arc rather than a single moment.

I launched Blinding Talent in 2020, at the height of COVID, when the entire live and touring economy had ground to a halt. Starting a management company in that climate felt genuinely reckless at the time.

Six years on, we’ve overseen the careers of hundreds of artists, and watching that decision pay off, not just survive but grow into something with real longevity, is the achievement I’m proudest of.

Within that, a few moments stand out. Signing Molly Warburton as our first artist on the roster will always be special because it’s the moment the company became real.

Watching Honeybadger, a small indie band from Brighton, hit one million organic streams was proof that the strategy works without needing major-label muscle behind it.

More recently, seeing D3LTA rack up millions of streams and sell out shows across the UK and Greece, culminating in a standout performance at The Great Escape, has been a brilliant reminder that the model keeps producing results year after year.

But if you asked me what I’m actually most proud of, it’s simpler than any single stat: building a company from scratch in the worst possible year to do it, and still being here, reputable, independent and growing.

What do you think are the big challenges for a manager right now?

A few stand out to me right now.

The first is the sheer noise of the platform economy. There are more places for an artist to exist online than ever, and standing out requires a genuinely joined-up strategy across social, streaming and live, rather than treating each channel as its own silo.

Managers who are still thinking in departments rather than ecosystems are going to struggle.

The second is the economics of touring. Selling out shows is one thing, but the cost of getting an independent artist on the road, including travel, crew and promotion, has risen sharply, and margins for emerging acts are tighter than they’ve ever been.

Part of the manager’s job now is financial engineering as much as creative guidance: knowing when a tour is a genuine growth opportunity versus a loss-leader that needs subsidising elsewhere.

The third, and probably the one people talk about least honestly, is AI, both as a tool and as a disruption. It’s changing how music gets discovered, marketed and even made, and managers who ignore it are ceding ground to those who are using it properly to move faster for their artists.

At Blinding Talent, we see it as something to be used deliberately, not feared or over-relied on. The artist relationship and strategic judgement still have to come from a human who knows the business.

Human first, always.

And underpinning all of it is professionalisation. The MMF’s certification work and the wider push towards formal standards in artist management is overdue. Managers are custodians of people’s careers and livelihoods, and that’s a responsibility, not just a job title.

What music are you currently listening to?

A few things have properly grabbed me lately.

On the rock side, bands like Twat Union are doing something genuinely fresh with the genre. It’s exciting to hear rock pushing boundaries again rather than just repeating itself.

I’ve also fallen hard back in love with country, which wasn’t something I expected. Stella Lefty and Ella Langley are all over my Spotify at the moment.

And I’ll admit I’m a little obsessed with Olivia Dean and Sienna Spiro. They’ve both got that Motown, Amy Winehouse-throwback quality that I think everyone needs a bit of in their life right now.

Why would you recommend the MMF?

I completed my MMF certification as an Artist Manager in 2026, and it genuinely changed how I run Blinding Talent.

Not because I didn’t know the fundamentals after nearly three decades in the industry, but because it formalised them.

The curriculum covers the things that actually protect artists and managers alike: fiduciary duty, royalties and collecting societies, copyright, sync, international tax, safeguarding and contract law.

That’s the unglamorous backbone of a sustainable career, and having it structured and certified rather than picked up piecemeal makes a real difference.

I’d recommend it to any manager, at any stage, for two reasons.

First, credibility. Artists and their teams increasingly want to know they’re working with someone who’s been vetted against a professional standard, not just someone with a good track record and a persuasive pitch.

Second, community. The MMF puts you in a room, literal or otherwise, with other managers who are serious about doing this properly, and that peer network has been valuable in its own right.

It’s actually part of why we started the Blinding Talent Music Industry podcast. I wanted a space to have those same honest, standards-driven conversations with other people in the industry, beyond our own roster.

Mark is an MMF Certified Manager, having completed the Artist Manager Certification in 2026.