Navigating The Music Industry

For anyone planning a career in the music business, Navigating the Music Industry is an excellent introduction to all the issues facing artists today. It combines the myriad talents of teachers, lawyers and musicians to provide a comprehensive overview of the industry. The first half of the book, "Controversial Issues," concentrates on the "music" side of this world - everything from censorship to regional music scenes to the future of country music to the debate between indie and major labels. The second half, "Business Models," looks at the "business" side, and contains many tips about the practical side of the music industry - using internet content, budgets and breakevens, tax issues, when to incorporate and why, and much more. Simply put, Navigating the Music Industry is the most complete book on the subject to date. Previously announced as What's Going On?: Current Issues in the Music Business.

"An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic There’s a reason today’s ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they’re designed that way. The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider’s look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and Ester Dean—this fascinating journey into the strange world of pop music reveals how a new approach to crafting smash hits is transforming marketing, technology, and even listeners’ brains. You’ll never think about music the same way again. A Wall Street Journal Best Business Book

Melbourne entertainment and media lawyer, journalist and educator Andrew Watt has written an "anecdotal textbook" for and about the Australian music industry. Drawing on interviews with over 90 key players from the Australian and international music industry and combining that with his first hand experience as an artist manager, venue owner, lawyer, publisher and music business lecturer, Andrew Watt has compiled an invaluable guide to the Australian Music Industry that will be an essential reference for music business students, artists and people already working in the industry. "I wanted to create a different type of textbook," said Watt. "There are a number of books out there that provide good, factual information about some aspects of the live and recorded music industries, but none of those books speak with the experience, knowledge and first hand anecdotes of those people currently working at the pointy end of the business, on a daily basis." Drawing on his classroom experience Watt saw that music business students were being well informed about the essential framework of the industry but there was a disconnect between the classroom and the cut and thrust of the business in the real world. "It would be impossible for any student to get access to all the key people in the industry for a one-on-one download of their knowledge and experience," said Watt. "Welcome To The Jungle bridges that gap and that couldn't have happened without so many key industry people being very generous with their time and thoughts. The book is a unique document in that respect." The music industry is a fast evolving business with disruption occurring to the established business models both in recorded music and the live touring scene. It's essential that any artist wanting to build a career understands who does what in the business as quite literally their career will depend on that knowledge. "I think that anyone connected to the music business either as an artist or behind the scenes could benefit from some or all of the book," said Watt. Welcome To The Jungle - Navigating the Music Business In Australia includes interview content from (in order of appearance): Michael Newton * Michael Gudinski * Luke O'Sullivan * Colin Daniels * Charles Caldas * Scott Bagby * Carl Gardiner * Vanessa Picken * Mark Poston * John Curtain * John Watson * Peter Leak * Todd Rundgren * Gregg Donovan * Joel Connolly * Greg Carey * Richie McNeill * Dror Erez * Denis Handlin * Simon Moor * Marianna Annas * David Williams * Dan Rosen * Brett Cottle * Jackie Krajl * Thomas Heymann * Michael Parisi * Ruuben Van Den Heuval * Bill Cullen * Bertis Downs * Bernard Galbally * Jadden Comerford * Ben Turnbull * Terry Blamey * Adam Jankie * Johann Ponniah * Ian James * Nick O'Byrne * Paul Piticco * Michael Coppel * Dave Faulkner * Millie Millgate * Frank Stivala * Richard Moffatt * Tim Northeast * Brian Lizotte * Emily York * Michael Chugg * Frank Cotela * Jessica Ducrou * Tim Janes * Andy Kelly * Zac Abroms * Danny Rogers * Bonnie Dalton * Steve Kilbey * Kav Temperley * Benji Rogers * Frank Varrasso * Peter Foley * Cath Haridy * Craig Hawker * Kim Green * Jess Beston * Jake Gold * Rae Harvey * Brett Murrihy * Jon Perring * James Young * Mary Mihelakos * Steve Wade * Fraser Bourke * Brian Taranto * Peter Noble * Zanda Strofield * Ely Ehlinger * Nicole Hart * Brian McDonald * Emily Kelly * Graham Ashton * Matt Gudinski * Keith Ridgway * John Rash * Kim Carter * Patrick Donovan * Nick Wallberg * Simon Smith * David Lewis * John Strohm * Scot Crawford * Chris O'Brien.

This research-based book outlines career models for artists, methods of creative engagement, artistic options including individuality and branding, production practices, the realities of being a musician in the new industries, and implications for popular music education. Due to the profound effects of the digitisation of music, the music industries have undergone rapid transformation. The former record label dominated industry has been supplanted by new industries, including digital aggregators, strategists and online platforms. These new music industries now facilitate ‘direct’ access to both artists and their music. While such accessibility and the potential for artist exposure have never been greater, the challenge to stand out or to even navigate a musical career pathway is formidable. A useful resource for musicians and educators, this text highlights the ways in which the new music industries facilitate increased opportunities for 21st Century popular musicians to collaborate, communicate and interact with others interested in their music.

The music industry is undergoing immense change. This book argues that the transformations occurring across the various music industries - recording, live performance, publishing - can be characterised as much by continuity as by change, raising complex questions about the value of music commodities.

“Musicians often pay a high price for sharing their art with us. Underneath the glow of success can often lie loneliness and exhaustion, not to mention the basic struggles of paying the rent or buying food. Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave raise important questions – and we need to listen to what the musicians have to tell us about their working conditions and their mental health.” Emma Warren (Music Journalist and Author). “Singing is crying for grown-ups. To create great songs or play them with meaning music's creators reach far into emotion and fragility seeking the communion we demand of it. However, music’s toll on musicians can leave deep scars. In this important book, Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave investigate the relationship between the wellbeing music brings to society and the wellbeing of those who create. It’s a much needed reality check, deglamorising the romantic image of the tortured artist.” Crispin Hunt (Multi-Platinum Songwriter/Record Producer, Chair of the Ivors Academy). It is often assumed that creative people are prone to psychological instability, and that this explains apparent associations between cultural production and mental health problems. In their detailed study of recording and performing artists in the British music industry, Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave turn this view on its head. By listening to how musicians understand and experience their working lives, this book proposes that whilst making music is therapeutic, making a career from music can be traumatic. The authors show how careers based on an all-consuming passion have become more insecure and devalued. Artistic merit and intimate, often painful, self-disclosures are the subject of unremitting scrutiny and data metrics. Personal relationships and social support networks are increasingly bound up with calculative transactions. Drawing on original empirical research and a wide-ranging survey of scholarship from across the social sciences, their findings will be provocative for future research on mental health, wellbeing and working conditions in the music industries and across the creative economy. Going beyond self-help strategies, they challenge the industry to make transformative structural change. Until then, the book provides an invaluable guide for anyone currently making their career in music, as well as those tasked with training and educating the next generation.

Now Magazine: “Top 5 Music Business Books” Hailed as an “indispensable” guide (Forbes), How to Make It in the New Music Business returns in a significantly revised and expanded third edition. How to Make It in the New Music Business, since its first publication in 2016, has become the go-to resource for musicians eager to make a living in a turbulent industry. Widely adopted by ambitious individuals and music schools across the world and considered “the best how-to book of its kind” (Music Connection), this essential work has inspired tens of thousands of aspiring artists to stop waiting around for that “big break” and take matters into their own hands. In this highly anticipated new edition, Ari Herstand reveals how to build a profitable career with the many tools at our fingertips in the post-COVID era and beyond, from conquering social media and mastering the digital landscape to embracing authentic fan connection and simply learning how to persevere. This edition breaks down these phenomena and more, resulting in a timeless must-have for anyone hoping to navigate the increasingly complex yet advantageous landscape that is the modern music business.