How to Be a Working Musician: A Practical Guide to Earning Money in the Music Business [Paperback]

Mike Levine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

Written for both novices and professionals, this invaluable handbook provides solid, practical career advice to anyone wanting to earn money as a working musician. Practical guidance on performing in bars and clubs; celebrations and business functions; providing accompaniment in theaters and cabarets; working at recording sessions; and composing for TV and radio advertisement is all provided based on the author's professional experience as an instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer. 6 illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823083292
• ISBN-13: 978-0823083299
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,963,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Road map to a career in music, August 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Be a Working Musician: A Practical Guide to Earning Money in the Music Business (Paperback)

"How to Be a Working Musician" is based not only on Mike Levine's own experience, but also on interviews with a wide range of industry insiders. The book is grounded in the economic realities of the music business.

It's a strong dose of reality. Some people might find this depressing, but I found the book to be very inspirational. It taught me not only that it *can* be done, but also how to do it, and what sort of attitude it will take to succeed.

Levine focuses on the practical steps you have to take, and keep taking over a period of years, in order to get to a point where you can make a living playing your instrument. He doesn't offer any shortcuts to stardom. Nor does he downplay the compromises that the average musician has to make in order to get and keep paying work. Levine simply tells how it is for the majority of working musicians -- and how to become one of them.

The book doesn't provide much information on related careers, like teaching music, or being a booking agent. There are other books for that. This one focuses on how to get paid to play and/or write music. The scope of the book is limited, but the coverage is very thorough.

4.0 out of 5 stars Way to pursuing your dreams in the Music Area, February 5, 2006

By 

Henry Cooper ""Still One Me"" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Be a Working Musician: A Practical Guide to Earning Money in the Music Business (Paperback)

Getting familiar with the details, behind-the-scenes, and the ups and downs about the road map in the music business. It tells it all on what musicians, producers, composers, arrangers plus mixers and engineers had to do. What can I say? This is not a bad book, it's a Great book to me even I'm musically trained. (Plus find most on my reviews on similar books I last read Conducting Technique: For Beginners and Professionals by Brock McElheran and What You Need to Know about the Record Industry by Kashif (such a neat book))

What I'll add to this book is that it helps you grow, helps you think more clearly, helps u be happy, helps be more interested of pursuing a career of music or any type of career in the entertainment industry.

I'm interested of writing and make songs for most artists out there who are doing they thing 2day.

Mr. Mike Levine, nice work on this book here. You're a Genius!

Looking for more from Mike Levine in the future.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good startup Guide, July 2, 2006

By 

Maeson (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Be a Working Musician: A Practical Guide to Earning Money in the Music Business (Paperback)

I recommend this book to gain greater insights in the Music business. It was a great buy along with a couple of manuals I purchased from Musicbrains.net entitled the Indie label Kit.