Almost every management agreement contains its own exit. What decides whether you can leave, and what it costs to do so, comes down to three clauses: the term and notice provision, the sunset clause, and what the manager owes you when the relationship ends. Find those three things in your agreement before anything else.
If you have no written agreement, that situation is different and covered below. If you signed something, the exit path is almost certainly already in the document.
Term and notice are where most disputes actually start
The term tells you how long the agreement runs. Notice tells you how much warning either side must give before ending it, whether at the conclusion of the term or earlier if the contract allows for that.
Many agreements also include an automatic renewal clause. If neither party sends notice by a certain date, the term rolls over for another period. The notice deadline for stopping that rollover is often different from the notice required to exit mid-term. Both are worth finding.
Most arguments about leaving are not arguments about whether someone can go. They are arguments about notice that was never delivered in the form the contract requires. A notice provision may call for a certified letter, a specific email address, or a set number of days counted from a specific date. A text message or a parking-lot conversation after a show does not satisfy that. Read the notice clause and follow it exactly. That step alone clears a large share of exit disputes before they turn costly.
Most arguments about leaving are not arguments about whether someone can go. They are arguments about notice.
Some agreements also include a termination-for-cause provision, which lets either side end the relationship before the term is up if the other party fails to meet specific obligations. Common grounds include failing to account for money, an extended period of no communication, or taking actions that contradict the artist's direction. If the relationship has become inactive but payment questions remain, check whether your agreement defines cause and what invoking it requires.
A written agreement makes all of this visible to both sides before it becomes a dispute. Musilock exists because most artists signing a first management deal never get one drafted before the working relationship starts.
The sunset clause decides what you keep paying after you leave
A sunset clause means commission continues after the management relationship ends, on deals the manager brought in while working with you. If your manager negotiated a record deal or a publishing arrangement during the term, they may be entitled to a share of income from that specific deal even after you part ways.
That structure is not automatically unfair. A manager who spent months getting you a deal should not lose all compensation the day you stop working together. The question is whether the sunset is shaped fairly, and this is the clause most artists get wrong when they sign.
A fair sunset declines, covers only term deals, and has an end date
- It declines over time. A flat rate running at the full commission percentage indefinitely is the version worth pushing back on.
- It covers only deals actively initiated and documented while the manager was working with you. Deals you brought in yourself, or that started before the management term, should not be in scope.
- It ends. A sunset with no taper and no end date is the single provision most worth reading slowly.
When someone says their manager gets commission forever, they are usually describing either a sunset with no taper and no end, or a clause that sweeps in work the manager had no documented role in. If your contract does not define a declining rate and a clear end date, that is worth examining with a music attorney before you send any notice.
The phrase documented during the term matters more than it looks. Some sunset clauses are vague about what counts as a deal the manager initiated. A manager who forwarded one email in a chain that eventually led to a deal, months before any serious negotiations, should not capture the same commission as one who drove the whole process. If your agreement does not define what initiated means, that ambiguity tends to resolve in the direction that costs you more.
Commission on a deal typically runs as long as that deal generates income, unless the sunset specifies otherwise. On a streaming agreement or a publishing deal, that can mean years of future income. The scope and duration of the underlying deal should shape what you agree to on the sunset term.
Your manager owes you something when you leave
Leaving is not only about stopping payment. Over the course of the relationship, a manager accumulates things on your behalf: contacts, contracts signed in your name, records of money received and paid out, correspondence with labels, promoters, or publishers.
You are entitled to copies of any agreements signed in your name, a full accounting of funds handled during the term, and access to any commitments that affect your ongoing work. Get this documented at the time of exit. What is not explicitly requested is easy to lose track of, and recovering it afterward is harder than asking for it on the way out.
The reason to handle this at exit rather than afterward is practical. A manager who is no longer engaged has less incentive to organize records, locate contacts, or reconstruct accounting from memory. Whatever you need, ask for it clearly before the relationship formally ends.
No written agreement does not mean no arrangement
The absence of a signed contract does not automatically end the matter. If a manager worked for you, received commission, and acted on your behalf over a sustained period, that relationship may be treated as a real arrangement regardless of whether either of you signed anything.
This is where the situation becomes expensive, and where a music attorney is not optional. Implied arrangements vary by where you are, the evidence tends to be a mix of text messages, payment records, and conflicting accounts, and the cost of a dispute built on a handshake can outrun what either side expected to gain. Get proper legal advice before you put anything in writing to the other person.
The question of whether an arrangement existed is different from the question of what its terms were. Even if a court or mediator agrees that a management relationship existed, the commission rate, the term length, and any sunset conditions are all contested. Nothing is presumed in your favor, and nothing is presumed in the manager's. This is a situation where what you said, what you paid, and what both parties understood at the time all become evidence.
The next contract is the one you can still write well
Artists leaving one management deal almost always sign another. Every clause you now know to look for, and every term that surprised you in this relationship, can be addressed clearly in the next agreement before either side commits.
Acting on your current agreement is a matter for a music attorney who can read what you actually signed. What you can control now is what goes into the next one. Musilock generates bilingual management contracts ready for e-signature, with term, notice, and sunset provisions built in so both sides agree to them in writing before the work starts.