Succeeding in the music industry takes more than reading books about it. There comes a time when you have to get in there and start throwing elbows. Where books will help is in how effectively you throw those elbows. Donald Passman's All You Need to Know About the Music Business is one tool that will be very useful for you.
Passman has a loose writing style that is very entertaining and keeps what could otherwise be daunting subjects fun and engaging. He's also experienced and current, something most people in this industry can't claim.
Passman has broken his book into parts. In the first section, he describes parts of the industry that will always be the same. For example, treating yourself like a business owner (yes, even though you're a musician) and making business decisions. Some of those decisions revolve around building a team. Who's on your team? For starter's, a personal manager, attorney, business manager, agent, and our favorites - the groupies.
Part II introduces you to the murky waters of Record Deals. A little shaky on record deal lingo? Passman introduces you to mechanical royalty calculations, advances & recoupment, 360 deal rights, and contract obligations. Passman gives you current examples of what to expect from record labels in today's modern music industry.
The third section introduces you to publishing deals, which can also be very confusing. The first few chapters in Part III are really important because Passman explains everything you need to know about copyright. As you'll soon find, if you want to make a living in this business, you need to own the copyright! Fortunately for you, after reading this book, you'll be way ahead. Some of the streams of income that come from publishing include printed music, mechanical royalties (monies collected from recorded music that you wrote the song for), syncing and transcription licenses, webcasting and performance monies.
The first three parts should be digested by all musicians. What follows are more specific sections. Part IV is titled "Group Issues" and is more for bands than individual artists. Part V covers all things you need to know about "Touring" - as it's title clearly states.Part VI, "Merchandising", should be read by everybody because that's a big income-maker nowadays. If you're a classical musician, you'll want to spend a lot of time with Part VII, "Classical Music." And last, because you're a savvy musician, you'll spend time with Part VIII, "Motion Picture Music". Music in movies can mean some nice mullah.