The Ultimate Survival Guide for the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell [With CD]

By Justin Goldberg

Book Overview

Using his sense of humour and unbelievable industry anecdotes ranging from Jewel and Celine Dion to Jeff Buckley, author Justin Goldberg delivers the truth about today's deeply tangled music business... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580650481
• ISBN13: 9781580650489
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications, Incorporated
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Unbelievable!

What's so unbelievable? Well, two things. First it's unbelievable how anyone could describe this book as "All in all, an extremely unsatisfying book. If there was a "no star" rating I would have chosen it." The second thing that is unbelievable is how great of a read this book truly is. This is a down to earth, easy to read, easy to relate to guide to the music industry, which is EXACTLY what it claims to be! Goldberg's style is very conversational, tapping into the many years of experience that he and others in the music industry bring to the table to give those of us who aren't "insiders" a very real look into this hard to break into scene. There's nothing technical, boring, or elitist about this book, it really is the "ultimate" survival guide. And I had absolutely no problem understanding the MANY references made in the book to the attached cdrom and how to access that information. I guess some people just don't pay attention to what they're reading!

This book saved our band!!!

Finally an honest book about today's music industry! After buying and reading too many other books promising the "secrets" to success in the music industry, I decided to take a chance and read this one mainly due to the frankness of the title "handbook for hell" which many bands playing original music can testify is the appropriate title for finding success in music. The greatest strengths of this book are the directness and honesty with which Justin points out the unfortunate truths about the industry - while providing an outline for success - even if you aren't an "American Idol". It's also easy to read and entertaining while quite instructive. This book brought new life to my band and should be required reading for any original band. A great side benefit is the accompanying disc for PC that is packed full of crucial contact info.If you wanna be a sucessful musician playing original music - get this book!

A Music Business Jewel of a Book

There are a lot of music biz books out there. The problem with my old favorites is the basics are there, but they are really outdated with the current changes in the music industry. Less than two weeks ago, I read this new release "The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell" written by Justin Goldberg. The writer has 15+ years under his belt and first hand experience with what new artists and other music biz wannabes face today. In my opinion, it is a crucial . .let me repeat crucial . . information guide that anyone genuinely interested in the music business should sit down and read. Unless you know the basics about copyrights and royalty distribution, you will be led around by your nose. This book covers TV, film, albums, copyright, record deals, lawyers, managers, indie labels and paints the big picture clearly. It also comes with a CD (not audio) that has numerous business forms that you need to be familiar with and a whole list of contacts for record companies, radio, managemnt, etc. It is the best music biz book I have read in a very long time. It is now the first book I recommend to anyone for this new age of music business that we find ourselves in. A Must Read for anyone who is seriously interested in pursuing a career in today's music field, where I myself have logged twenty+ years.

GREAT INSIDER INTERVIEWS

Finished absorbing the book just last week and I've got to say it's some of the *best* money I've ever spent in this industry! Gave me great perspective and I particularly liked all the insider interviews! Nicely done!

LIVING PROOF, THIS BOOK IS RIGHT ON TARGET!

I really wanted to put together a band that was open minded to my ideas, and wanted to attack the music industry in a very "UNTRADITIONAL" way. I am a computer nerd from way back, and I could see that over the years to come... this could be my big chance to accomplish my dream if the cards were played right. So, I put out an ad on 2 musicians classified sections (via the internet) seeking the like minded band mates I had always dreamed of meeting. Well, I met them all within a couple weeks thanks to the ads. We spoke on the phone, and through emails. Joe (guitarist) tells me on the phone that he has a few songs he could send me in mp3 format over the internet that he recorded at home. I set up an ftp server, and had the songs that same night. I wrote the vocals on the fly for the most part while recording them, and sent them back within hours of getting the music from Joe. He freaked out, and loved the vocals. He then sent me 2 more songs. They were completely finished over the next 2 days. He heard them, and freaked out again lol. Well, after feeling such strong chemistry, we knew we needed to meet in person, and we had to find a drummer ASAP. I happened to know of one that I met online as well. And he is our drummer still today. Our other guitarist is Joe's best friend (for over 10 years), and our bassist we met online several months later after the album was already complete. In 3 months time, we had written a full album, recorded it's demo, built a website,.... And were playing gigs. We were headlining by our 3rd show. A couple months later we recorded the ACTUAL album on our home computer, filmed the entire process, edited down the footage, turned it into an enhanced CD, sent it off to be mass produced, and are currently getting it to radio stations, labels, managers, publications, etc... all thanks to the internet. Although we had done all of this before I had even read "THE ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUIDE to the NEW MUSIC INDUSTRY", in reading this book.... I feel more confident that our band is doing the correct steps that will give us the edge in this rapidly evolving "NEW MUSIC INDUSTRY". And I've learned plenty of new tricks that had not even crossed my mind. The wisdom in these pages is invaluable.If you want to see some of the ideas from this book at work, you may visit www.zenm.com/e-card . This is a web address of my band TELEMETRIC. It is an E-CARD sent to music industry contacts.Use this book by Justin Goldberg to enrich your life. The price of the book will pay for itself 1000 fold!