Introduction
The culture and music industry is often described as a creative industry, a talent industry, or an entertainment industry. But beneath all of that language lies a more fundamental truth.
It is a people industry.
Before sound becomes music, before ideas become movements, before culture becomes memory, there are people. People who imagine, people who collaborate, people who distribute meaning, people who validate relevance, and people who consume.
Culture does not move on its own. People move culture.
People Create, People Carry, People Consume
In music and cultural systems, people are not passive audiences. They are active participants in meaning-making.
People co-create narratives with artists and institutions. People drive products from conception to circulation. People transform songs into symbols and moments into movements. People form fandoms that outlive marketing cycles.
Taste is rarely an individual act. It is shaped through conformity, social identity, shared language, and influence. What we listen to, support, and defend is often a reflection of who we belong to or who we want to belong to.
This is why communities matter more than campaigns, and why movements outlast moments.
Participation Is the Real Power Shift
When we say people participate, we mean more than engagement metrics or attendance.
Participation is authorship.
Modern culture is no longer performed to people. It is performed with them. Audiences now stand symbolically on the stage alongside creators, shaping outcomes, momentum, and meaning.
This idea sits at the center of two books in my collection, We All Belong to the Stage and The Modern Patron. Both works explore how cultural power has shifted from gatekeepers to participants, from institutions to communities, and from ownership to shared presence.
They examine how audiences, supporters, collaborators, and ecosystems now co-author cultural success.
(And yes, if this resonates, go and buy them 
)
The Plug Theory: Connection Is Everything
In a people industry, people are the connection, what we often call the plug.
Nothing moves unless the plug is connected.
Artists, executives, curators, promoters, critics, platforms, and fans exist within an interconnected human network. At any point where movement is required, people must be connected to people.
Where many get it wrong is in believing that success only comes from fully established, highly visible connections. In reality, momentum often comes from people already within reach, those quietly watching, listening, believing, and engaging with what you are building.
Sometimes, the most powerful connections are closer than we think.
Passion, Pretence, and Social Currency
If people connect passionately with your vision, leverage it. Passion sustains projects long before profit appears.
If people only pretend to connect, hovering and signaling interest without commitment, understand the value of that pretence. Sometimes it keeps doors open. Sometimes it buys time. Sometimes it allows you to survive another cycle.
Not every relationship is pure, but every relationship carries social currency.
People come with history. They come with shared creative commons. They come with favors owed and favors expected. They come with admiration, respect, envy, and competition.
People management is not manipulation. It is conscious navigation.
Expectation Is a Creative Asset
Mismanaged expectations collapse projects faster than lack of talent.
In a people industry, individuals invest more than time or money. They invest identity. When expectations are ignored, misunderstood, or violated, disappointment spreads faster than praise.
Managing people means managing clarity.
Clarity of intent
Clarity of role
Clarity of outcome
Clarity of limitation
Expectation management is not administrative work. It is creative leadership.
Networking Is Stewardship
Networking is often misunderstood as accumulation. In reality, it is stewardship.
How you grow relationships.
How you maintain them.
How you lose them.
How you repair them.
How you exit with dignity.
All of this is people management.
In a people industry, bridges matter because paths always cross again.
Feedback Is Not Noise
Feedback, critique, reviews, disappointment, and even rejection are not distractions. They are data.
But they must be filtered creatively and consciously.
Not all feedback deserves obedience. Not all criticism deserves dismissal.
Leadership lies in knowing what to absorb, what to transform, and what to ignore, without losing emotional intelligence.
The Cardinal Rule
People management is not secondary. It is not a soft skill. It is not an afterthought.
In the culture and music industry, people management is the product.
People are the infrastructure.
People are the distribution.
People are the validation.
People are the legacy.
If you forget that you are playing a people game, the people will remind you loudly.