About Keeping Score
Music is our lens into the craft behind excellence. Revealing and informing how we think, decide, prepare, create, and lead.
Welcome!
I write about the forces that shape exceptional success in music and beyond:
The discipline of composers
The authority of rock stars
The judgment of conductors
The business instincts of the most effective people in the live entertainment world
When you look at these figures closely, you notice patterns and durable principles that cross genres, centuries, and careers.
The goal of Keeping Score is to refine how you think: about ambition, decision-making, leadership, preparation, and the pursuit of excellence.
Music is simply the clearest lens I know.
Keeping Score generally publishes twice a week. One edition is usually around an idea. The other often centers on a person: a conductor, composer, performer, songwriter, talent agent, producer, or music-business executive whose work rewards closer attention.
Subscribe to receive new editions and a closer look at the craft behind how people think, prepare, create, and perform.
Deep Dives into Craft
Not quick takes. Not recycled industry talk.
Each piece examines a specific moment: a premiere, a setlist decision, a backstage discussion, a technical demand, a conductor’s choice, and unpacks what it reveals about craft and how legendary performers operate.
You’ll see why:
a conductor’s discipline is a masterclass in leadership
a composer’s structure teaches you how to frame bold ideas
a rock star’s stage authority explains persuasion better than any business book
a talent agent’s negotiation shows how leverage and preparation really work
These are the lived realities from my decades inside the live music business.
INSIGHTS
ONE INSIGHT · ONE TOOL · ONE PRACTICE
INSIGHTS explores the hidden craft behind excellence, using music as a lens on judgment, discipline, creativity, preparation, and performance.
Each edition offers one idea, one practical tool, and one practice for applying that principle to the way you think, decide, create, and live. (see insight)
Beyond the Booking
My company, Celebrity Direct Inc., produces private corporate and nonprofit performances with major artists.
I see the part of the industry the public never will—the rehearsals, the negotiations, the backstage dynamics, the split-second decisions that make or break a show.
Beyond the Booking is where I break those moments down.
Not to gossip, but to reveal principles:
why honoring a dressing-room request is a leadership move
how a tour manager maintains authority without force
why some artists soar on stage at 70 while others fade at 40
how a flawless VIP meet & greet protects a client’s reputation
what separates the professionals from the pretenders
Greatness, Examined
I also write about the composers, conductors, and performers who shaped my life in music—Verdi, Brahms, Toscanini, Abbado, and many others. These pieces combine biography, context, interpretation, and personal experience, giving you a way to understand their work with more clarity and curiosity.
Also including: Stephen Sondheim, Ahmad Jamal, Minimalism
The aim is simple:
To make you a more attentive listener and a more discerning observer of craft.
The Agent’s Desk (Paid Series)
For readers who want a deeper understanding of the talent-agent world, I’ve built The Agent’s Desk, a structured, 12-part guide on becoming and succeeding as a music talent agent. It’s not a memoir; it’s a professional manual—the material I wish I had when I started. (link)
Why I Write This Newsletter
Because music is the most complete laboratory I know for studying excellence.
I’ve spent:
25+ years booking and producing celebrity performances
years studying conducting at Juilliard
multiple semesters teaching concert tour management at the University of Miami
a lifetime of reading scores, negotiating contracts, managing productions, and learning from extraordinary performers
The through-line is always the same:
Those who master their craft follow patterns—and those patterns are transferable.
This newsletter is my attempt to articulate those patterns and make them useful.
I keep score a lot. | My site: www.michael-demarco.com
What You Will Learn to Notice
Over time, Keeping Score will help you look more closely at:
sharper judgment
a clearer sense of what “prepared” really means
better listening—in music and in conversations
higher internal standards
confidence in your decisions
a deep appreciation for structure, discipline, and authority
Music is the teacher. Your life is the application.
Why I Call It Keeping Score
A music score is a map, a blueprint of intention and interpretation.
But “keeping score” also means paying attention, tracking what matters, and learning from the details others overlook.
The Business of Music is the lens.
That’s what this newsletter is:
A way of keeping score on mastering craft, one performance at a time.
Article Links
A quick reference to what’s in Keeping Score:
Profiles of shows I book and produce with behind-the-scenes insights and practical takeaways in Beyond The Booking, include shows with Earth, Wind & Fire, Boyz II Men, Lionel Richie, Tony Bennett, Taylor Dayne, Lou Gramm, Jason Isbell, Smokey Robinson, Jake Owen, Renée Goldsberry, Liza Minnelli, Paul Anka, Sheryl Crow and many others.
Profiles of Composers, Conductors and Artists here.
Students of Music Business (and enthusiasts!) looking for a deeper dive into my favorite industry books In My Bookcase, view the complete list and why these are essential reads.
Paid subscribers get full access to The Agent’s Desk: A 12-part series on becoming and succeeding as a music talent agent.
You can access my entire archive of Keeping Score newsletters here.
If you're new here, I invite you to take a spin through a few recent pieces—perhaps a backstage story, a conducting insight, or a sharp take on where the live music business is headed.
Backstage With Celebrity Talent
There's a thirty-second window that determines whether the $500K celebrity I booked for a private performance becomes legendary or merely expensive.
Subscribe to Keeping Score
If you want to sharpen how you think about music, creativity, performance, and the forces behind exceptional success, this newsletter will meet you where you are—and push your thinking to a higher level.
Every new deep dive arrives directly in your inbox.
Stay connected
Subscribers often shape what I write next. I welcome questions, disagreements, and topics you think deserve a closer look. If something in music, performance, or the live entertainment world has you curious, tell me.
Keeping Score works best as an ongoing dialogue with readers who care about excellence in craft and want to understand what truly drives it.
