The Holler
Manifesto

There are two million working musicians in America. Playing bars, breweries, taprooms, coffee shops, festivals, weddings, house concerts, street corners. Teaching lessons. Writing songs. Cutting sync. Putting their music out into the world. They are the heartbeat of every town that still has a soul.

Fewer than five percent of them have a manager.

The music industry built its infrastructure for the top. For the signed. For the touring acts with buses and riders and agents at CAA. The economics require it — a manager takes 15–20%, a booking agent takes another 10–15%. Combined, 25–35% of a local musician's income doesn't pay rent for either of them. So managers and agents only work with artists who already made it. Everyone else is on their own.

This is the original sin of the music business: the people who need management most are the ones who can't afford it.

We believe this is about to change. Not gradually. Completely.

Professional pitches that book gigs. Negotiated dates and compensation. A managed calendar, venue follow-ups, qualified inquiries. The work of a full-time booking manager — the emails, the follow-ups, the spreadsheets, the phone tag — handled.

Not a tool that artists learn. A manager that works for artists.

We are not building a tool. We are not building a marketplace. We are not building a platform and hoping artists adopt it.

We are the manager.

When an artist signs with Holler, they get what every signed artist gets: someone pitching venues on their behalf, negotiating their deals, managing their calendar, handling their inbox, and fighting for their career. The difference is that Holler can manage a thousand artists as well as one — which means the cost stays low, the capacity stays high, and the commission can be half the industry rate.

The old model scales with headcount. More artists means more managers means more overhead means higher commissions means fewer artists can afford it. It's a negative flywheel that has kept the vast majority of working musicians unmanaged for decades.

Our model scales differently. More artists means better bookings means stronger venue relationships means more artists want in. It's a positive flywheel — and it gets better with every artist who joins.

We believe in the independent artist. The one playing original songs at a brewery on a Tuesday. The one driving three hours to a festival slot that pays $300. The one who chose music over a “real job” and has never regretted it, even when rent is hard.

These artists don't need a record deal. They don't need to go viral. They need someone to book them gigs — consistently, professionally, relentlessly. They need a manager who works as hard as they do.

Your manager doesn't sleep. Doesn't forget to follow up. Doesn't lose momentum. Pitches fifty venues while you're on stage.

We are starting where we live. Colorado. The Front Range. Boulder, Denver, Lyons, Fort Collins, Longmont. The bluegrass and Americana heartland, where Planet Bluegrass runs festivals and every other brewery has live music three nights a week. We know these venues. We know these artists. We play these stages.

But this is not a local story. There are towns like this everywhere. Austin. Nashville. Asheville. Portland. Every city with a music scene has the same problem: too many talented artists, not enough infrastructure to connect them to stages.

The agencies of the future will not be built on headcount. They will be built on execution. A team that does the work, charges for the outcome, and scales without limit. An agency with the reach that no traditional firm could achieve.

That is what we are building.

Holler was founded by Charlie Rose. Twenty years on stages and in studios across the country. Two decades of relationships with venue bookers, festival programmers, and fellow musicians.

Holler is built in-house — AI-native, owned and operated by the team that lives in the industry it serves.

Every working musician deserves a manager.

Holler makes that possible.

That's the bet. That's the company. That's Holler.