One of the most important things you can do for yourself both personally and for your career is to constantly look for new ways to grow, learn, and improve. And we’re not just talking about practice.
There are two sides of music: the art and the business. So whether you are an up-and-coming artist, a manager, a venue, a school, etc. it’s important to know the ins and outs of the industry in order to succeed. Learning the art of marketing, distribution, and financial planning for small business owners is important if one wishes to survive this highly competitive market.
In addition to providing great information on the business side of music, reading is a great way to learn about your craft, your industry and the history of your art, and the musicians who helped establish it.
One of our goals is to provide you with a current and relevant list of resources to help you establish, maintain and succeed in music. So, we decided to take a look at Amazon to see what 10 of the most popular music business/music books were so far this summer and decided to add them to our reading list so we can review them for you.
That way, we can help weed out some of the more irrelevant material for you and save you some time so that you choose to read the best of what’s out there. Here’s the list of books we plan on reading. We’ll add our reviews to the site soon, but in the meantime, if you’ve read any of these books, what did you think?
Please note, that for the time being, clicking any of the links below will take you to Amazon until our reviews are written.
  1. All You Need to Know About the Music Business: Ninth Edition by Donald S PassmanWe’ve read previous editions of this book, so it will be interesting to see how the latest version has evolved to include current music trends. (Review Coming Soon) |
  2. This Business of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Business and Legal Issues of the Music Industry by M. William Krasilovsky, Sidney Shemel, John M Gross, and Jonathan Feinstein(Review Coming Soon) |
  3. HOW TO MAKE IT IN THE NEW MUSIC BUSINESS — Now With The Tips You’ve Been Asking For! by Robert Wolff (Review Coming Soon) |
  4. Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory: A Comprehensive and Convenient Source for All Musicians by Carl Schroeder & Keith WyattOur thoughts: this is a practical guide to music theory that can serve as a fantastic reference whether it’s for your music theory classes at school or as a refresher once you’ve finished at school. Read our review. |
  5. Music Research: A Handbook by Laurie J Sampsel(Review Coming Soon) |
  6. Six-Figure Musician – How to Sell More Music, Get More People to Your Shows, and Make More Money in the Music Business (Music Marketing [dot] com Presents) by David Hooper (Review Coming Soon) |
  7. What They’ll Never Tell You About the Music Business: The Myths, the Secrets, the Lies (& a Few Truths) by Peter M Thall(Review Coming Soon) |
  9. Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail by Mike King (Review Coming Soon) |
  10. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitin Recommended.We thought this was an interesting book. You can read our review of it here. |
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