All You Need to Know About the Music Business
All You Need to Know About the Music Business
By Don Passman
This is, without a doubt, the most important book to anyone in this community. Industry executives and artists - if you haven’t read this, it is your #1 homework assignment to get a copy right away.
You may be thinking: ‘This book was originally published in 1991 - How can it be relevant today?’
Don Passman has done a great job of updating the book, but to be honest, no fixed printed material can capture the mercurial nature of the music industry. To really get the music industry, you need to be a part of the business.
Passman has nailed one key thing that we all need and that is the language of the business. While the players and deal structures may change, the business we operate in now very much evolved from the same business he was writing about in the early 90’s. Managers still manage, agents still book gigs, record labels still invest in recordings, and publishing is still a convoluted mess of nuanced legal terms.
Not only is this book informative and it will give you the foundation to be able to have intelligent conversations within the industry, it’s also really fun to read - Don Passman happens to be a novelist as well and an excellent writer all-around. Please give it a read or listen ASAP.