What does a music manager actually do? And what skills does it take? In the Czech Republic, these questions had no research-backed answer until now. This thesis maps the music management profession through the eyes of eight practitioners via semi-structured interviews with managers, agents, and other stakeholders in the Czech music industry and uses thematic analysis of their accounts to propose a competency framework that can serve as a foundation for education and professional development.
The resulting framework comprises eight competencies, seven general and one differentiating. Relational capital, the ability to build and maintain networks of trust, emerged as a cross-cutting condition of the profession as a whole. The most consistent educational gap in the Czech context turns out to be surprisingly practical: financial and legal literacy. The thesis also identifies what sets the Czech environment apart from international counterparts, and examines why the music management profession still lacks a formal standard and any systematic pathway for training.
