Music, Money, and Success: The Insider's Guide to the Music Industry [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Brabec (Author), Todd Brabec (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1994

The new softcover revised edition of this comprehensive guide to the music business. Millions dream of attaining glamour and wealth through music. This book reveals the secrets of the music business that have made fortunes for the superstars. A must for every songwriter, performer and musician, as well as required reading for every music lawyer, manager agent, producer or publisher.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Brabecs, experienced entertainment lawyers, have written a practical, comprehensive guide about the music business for songwriters and recording artists. They pay special attention to songwriting, dealing in depth with such topics as music publishing; songwriting for motion pictures, Broadway, commercials, and television; performance rights; foreign rights; buying and selling songs; and copyright. The authors also include a section on lawyers, managers, and agents, as well as a chapter on recording artists. Useful to professionals and novices alike, this well-written book provides songwriters--and, to a lesser extent, recording artists--detailed guidance to the many complex aspects of the music business. Highly recommended for the music reference sections of all types of libraries.
- David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A pratical, comprehensive guide about the music business. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 412 pages
• Publisher: Schirmer Trade Books (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 002870133X
• ISBN-13: 978-0028701332
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,447,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT GUIDE FOR TRACING MUSIC INCOME STREAMS AND SOURCES, January 11, 2000

By 

Ron Simpson (Provo, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music, Money, and Success: The Insider's Guide to the Music Industry (Hardcover)

"How did you arrive at those percentages?" I asked a colleague, after he had presented a very complex licensing proposal for a revue-style stage show. His answer embarrassed me, because I was very familiar with both of the books he cited, one of which was this title, by Jeffrey and Todd Brabec. The Brabec twins' track record goes back thirty years or so. About 1970, when I was first setting up my music companies, both brothers worked for ASCAP, and helped me with some business details. Later on, as the dust-jacket bio explains, Jeff went on into private practice, and is now associated with the Chrysalis Group. Todd has stayed with ASCAP, and is currently Director of Membership, a position that gives him high visibility in the L.A. music community. In other words, these guys know their territory: when they talk about "the inner workings of a music publisher," they lead you into a world seldom seen by the uninitiated outsider. When they talk about "sources of income," their list is exhaustive, not ending until they've included all possible licensing revenues, even "greeting cards" and "dolls and toys." When they tackle co-publishing agreements with this same attention to detail, they are recommending strategies many enterprising and entrepreneurial songwriters will want to try, sooner or later. And we're just beginning: yet to come are the fields of records, television, movies, live performance income, and, finally

musical theater, where my colleague had discovered more complex principles and formulas for computing royalties than I had seen before. Thanks, Jeff and Todd, for taking time to create this book. Okay, sure, you'll make some money with it-costs thirty bucks, for heaven's sake. But still, getting these concepts out of your heads and onto our desks is a major service. While the value of this material is obvious to anyone involved with licensing or contracts, it can be equally helpful as a university text. Consider it for honors work in music business, or for independent readings projects. Now that the book has been around a few years, it has found its way into the libraries of many star-level artists and songwriters, who regularly sing its praises to anyone who will listen. Ron Simpson, School of Music, Brigham Young University. Author of MASTERING THE MUSIC BUSINESS.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for any songwriter or music biz student, May 24, 2000

By 

Gregory A. Crum (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music, Money, and Success: The Insider's Guide to the Music Industry (Hardcover)

As a student of USC's Music Industry program, I not only had this book as a course text, but also had the extreme privilege of having the authors as instructors. I have used the book as an invaluable reference as well as a recommendation or loan to fellow songwriters who needed more information on how they may find a successful strategy toward a career in the industry.

Completely lacking any vague ambiguities regarding the often "mysterious" inner workings of the music industry, the Brabec brothers have clearly defined realistic expectations for those entering the music world from any angle. Straightforward and to-the-point explanations of just about every aspect of the business, especially on the publishing side of things, render this book an essential part of any student or songwriter's library.

Also great for the the vaguely curious, this text is a steal at any price!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, Up To Date, and Wriiten So All Can Understand, January 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Music Money & Success (Paperback)

Music, Money, & Success is a must read for anyone interested in music business. As a Vice President/General Manager in the fast moving industry of music publishing, I need to keep abreast of all the changes and any new developments that take place. The revised edition of this book has allowed me to do just that. I strongly recommend this book to anyone trying to keep up with the business and, most of all, anyone who is interested in getting into the business. It is written in a way that all people can easily understand the "ins and outs" of the industry and would enable anyone to grasp the knowledge to enable them to start on the road to a career in the music. It has great information on how the "web" has affected the music business and also contains all the new royalty rates for CDs, Motion Pictures, Television, and other Media.