Product Description

For fifteen years, All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been universally regarded as the definitive, essential guide to the music industry. Now in its sixth edition, it has been completely revised and updated with crucial, up-to-the-minute information on the industry's major changes in response to today's rapid technological advances and uncertain economy. Veteran music lawyer Donald Passman is in the thick of this transformation and understands that anyone involved in the music business is feeling the deep, far-reaching effects of it. This latest edition of what the Los Angeles Times called "the industry bible" will lead novices and experts alike through the fundamental practices as well as the new, uncharted territory of one of this country's most dynamic industries.

In the music business, the key to success lies in knowing how to protect yourself. To do that, you need the best and most up-to-date advice available. Whether you are -- or aspire to be -- a performer, writer, or executive, Passman's comprehensive guide to the legal and financial aspects of the music world is an indispensable tool. Drawing on his unique professional experience as one of the most trusted advisors in the industry, Passman offers authoritative information on how to:

• Select and hire a winning team of advisors -- personal and business managers, agents, and attorneys -- and structure their commissions, percentages, and fees in a way that will protect you and maximize these relationships
• Master the big picture and the finer points of record deals
• Navigate the ins and outs of songwriting, music publishing, and copyrights
• Maximize concert, touring, and merchandising deals

This latest edition also includes information on:

• Music downloads, webcasting, streaming-on-demand, and podcasting
• The new video streaming services
• How royalties are computed in the digital age
• The latest developments in deals with independent labels, including upstream deals
• Updates on all the traditional industry matters, such as royalties, advances, video budgets, and copyright law

In All You Need to Know About the Music Business, one of the industry's most influential figures shows you how to thrive in the most exciting business in the world. It's a book that no musician, entertainment lawyer, agent, promoter, publisher, manager, record company executive -- anyone who makes their living from music -- can afford to be without.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4220 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

From Library Journal
An entertainment lawyer whose clients include many from the top of the music charts, Passman has written a book that sets out to give musicians, performers, and songwriters the tools to hire advisers, market their careers, protect their creative works, and generally cope with a complex industry in a state of flux. Passman explains boilerplate language, the complexities of royalties and advances, and label and distribution deals; a section on record deals begins with an overview of the business and works through all the steps. The "Adventures in Cyberspace" chapter is a helpful summary of the way CD-ROMs and the Internet are affecting the business. Included here is information on recent legislation and a look at how digitizing music delivery will continue to change things. Packed with illustrations, sample calculations, and definitions, All You Need To Know is humorous and accessible enough for those who just want to understand the business while being detailed and documented enough for those who make a living from it.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Michael Eisner Chairman and CEO, Walt Disney Company An entertaining and professionally written primer on the music business. -- Review

Review
"Should be required reading for anyone planning or enduring a career in the biz."-- Rolling Stone

"Any creative person who's considering working in the music business should read this book."-- Jimmy Lovine, chairman, Interscope Geffen A&M Records

"I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the music business."-- David Geffen

"I've spent ten years trying to get Don to open up like this to me. Never has he been so eloquent, so patient, or so thorough. It cost me a fortune to get these diamonds from Don: Now you can have them. For your own. At a fraction of the cost."-- Tom Waits

"This man is so knowledgeable that it's difficult negotiating with him. The book is terrific and a must-read if you want to know how the music business works."-- Joe Smith, former president and CEO, Capitol Records/EMI Music, Inc.

"I almost hesitate to recommend Don's book -- it gives away more inside information than it should."-- Mo Ostin, chairman of the board, DreamWorks Records

"An entertaining and professionally written primer on the music business."-- Michael Eisner, former CEO, the Walt Disney Company

"I highly recommend Don's book to anyone who has ever been interested in the music business. His experience and insight into the inner workings of the music world make this an indispensable work."-- Quincy Jones

"If I'd had this book when I started, I'd be ten times richer and would have saved a fortune in legal fees."-- Ed Bicknell, manager, Dire Straits

Customer Reviews

Fantastic read for anyone in the music business
This book is great for all of those new artists in the music industry.
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Extremely Informational
This book is lterally a page turner. No matter if you are an Indie Aritst. Song Wirter, Producer, or even own your own label this book detailed knowledge explaining all the legal asspects of the game. basically how you get paid, how to protect yourself, and what you should ask for when making deals. It also gives tips on how to negotiate contracts (record deals), red flags, loop holes, ect. Just read it!

Don't get taken to the cleaners!
The whole point of the book is to keep you from getting screwed, and it catalogs every possible way in which everyone in the music business - from record companies to publishers to promoters and everyone in between - can and will try to take a big chunk of your music earnings. It doesn't have sample contracts with long boring explanations, it just tells you the salient negotiating points and where various artists (emerging, mid-level, and superstars; majors vs. independent) generally end up in terms of compensation, what you should hold out for in your negotiations, etc.

Although the book reads like a 'parade of horribles' for the music industry, and may make you reconsider your desire to become involved in the business of music, the book is really intended for people who are going to be negotiating contracts with powerful interests. Passman gives you the confidence that, when and if the time comes where you have to negotiate important deals, you will have a place to turn to get an honest appraisal of the deal you are being offered, where it might be improved, what others are getting, etc.

Highly recommended for anyone in the business. If you are an artist with a "team" of professionals helping you (chapter one of the book discusses this team) this book really could be "all you need to know about the music business." If you are going to be on the employer side of the business creating contracts, the book still makes a great companion text to something like "This Business of Music" which includes sample contracts and more lengthy expositions but lacks the critical insights to protect your bottom line. If you are going the D.I.Y. route, this book is probably less important to you than Bob Baker's Guerilla Music Marketing Handbook, as promotion and publicity are everything at first, but it would still be a good reference tool, if only to prove to yourself you've made the right decision by rejecting the bad deals shady labels are offering you.