This month I'll continue on my previous month's theme and look at just a few of the books that are out there about the music business. Most of these books provide solid, dependable advice but since I know everyone's time is limited you might want to find the best book that meets your specific needs. These reviews are designed to steer you toward the right publication.
Music books cover everything from picking the right gear and getting the right sound to getting signed or selling your music. In this article, I will list a few of the marketing and selling books I've picked up over the years and try to give you a good overview of my impression of the book and how it may help you as a musician.
Books
The Indie Music Contact Bible, Big Meteor Publishing ( http://www.bigmeteor.com/ ).
This book boasts thousands of contacts and information sources but you should be prepared to do a lot of leg and web work. The book is a large directory divided by genre and information type giving small blurbs describing the resource. The Bible does not indicate the value or quality of the web site or contact information so you will have to wade through 1,000s of web sites and contact those listed in an effort to effectively use this book. This is a good book for musicians who do not know where to start to create contact lists, get reviews, and/or locate radio stations, musicians or sheet music. It does not provide only the "best of the best" so be prepared and do not get frustrated by wading through the lists.
The Musician's Guide to Making and Selling Your Own CDs and Cassettes by Jana Stanfield. Published by Writer's Digest Books.
This is one of those books that covers everything from making your demo to marketing to building a following and being successful on the road in under 200 pages. The author is a musician herself and she provides a rousing can-do, hands-on approach to making and selling independent music. It's an easy read and worth a look by musicians just starting out in the business or it may even re-invigorate those who have been playing for years. I know musicians who have been playing live for some time will shake there heads saying "I already knew that" to a lot of the common sense recommendations but occasionally you run across a nugget that you can exploit. The book is dated in that it does not explore the new markets of the Internet. The real power of this book is the positive attitude of "I've done it so can you." It's a practical, baseline musician's book for building an audience through performance and touring (traditional channels) that does not delve too deeply into any one area.
