The
Musician's Handbook: Reviews
IndieDisco
http://www.indiedisco.com
Bobby Borg
is a drummer and writer. This book was written as an easy-to-understand
guide to the music business -- contracts, negotiating, royalties, and
all the other things musicians tend to want other people to handle for
them. Borg says he wrote this because other similar books were dense and
incomprehensible and he felt a musician-friendly approach was needed.
It is a fabulous
book!
It reads
well, and has lots "trivia" thrown in to keep it lively, such as lists
of artists whose careers were cut short by drugs or alcohol, top producers,
and strange rider requests, as well as quotes from famous musicians.
The handbook's
usefulness, though, comes from the business information and advice. Musicians
will appreciate, for example, the breakdown of recording funds. Think
a $300,000 record deal sounds sweet? If your band has four people in it,
your share might amount to just over $10,000. It is information like this
that is invaluable, helping to prepare musicians for the world they are
about to enter and preventing surprises along the way.
Controlled
composition clauses, advances, finding an agent, touring, and just about
everything else you could imagine is in here. And Borg does an admirable
job making it understandable.
He also takes
the time to add some interviews with people in the business to emphasize
certain points and let readers in on additional perspectives beyond his
own. The interview with Chris Arnstein (manager and tour manager providing
services to many big groups) has a wonderful section, for example, about
the stages a band goes through as they tour and tour and tour.
I could go
on and on, but it would be much easier for both of us if you simply went
out and bought this and started reading it. A must have for a musician
planning a professional music career.
The Musician's Handbook.
Published by Billboard Books, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications.
Find out more at http://www.watsonguptill.com
or order
it here right now through Amazon.com
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