Inside the Playbook: Tom Windish on How to Build a Music Agency

The Manager's Playbook · Aug 21, 2026 · 17m

Tom Windish joins The Manager’s Playbook to talk about the business behind booking, building an agency, and what it actually takes to grow artists in the live music world.

In this clip, Tom shares how he went from promoting college concerts to becoming a booking agent, building The Windish Agency, scaling the company, and eventually selling to Paradigm. He also gets into the early days of electronic music booking, promoter-agent relationships, artist services, and the hard reality of management.

For artists, managers, agents, and aspiring music executives, this is a real look at how live…