Customer Reviews

The Musician's Internet: Online Strategies for Success in the Music Industry (Music Business)

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Through recent troubles with my band's free website account I decided I should check into getting a professional site. I wasn't exactly sure how to go about it, or if it would be anymore of an advantage to having an amateur site at geocities, so I decided to read The Musician's Internet by Peter Spellman to see what it was all about. Not only does Spellman explain how you can go about how to create a website, rent web space, expand your online presence, and become a standout site through search engines and online web groups, he also explains the importance of the internet and what it means to your band or business. Written in 2000, the book is a little out of date when it talks about the future being 2005, but Spellman's predictions are dead on. He explains that web based music and internet radio will become more and more of a dominating force in the media world, and they have. Nevertheless this book will serve as a strong foundation to the reader for years to come. He explains how to upload video and audio and make your site as professional as it can be. One extra perk of this book is a section on online radio and broadcasting live concerts. Spellman knows exactly what he is talking about, and his insight should really help musicians, and anyone for that matter, find out how useful the internet can be to bring extra revenue and publicity to your band or company.

This book was a quick, easy read done in one afternoon. The advice itself was not bad at all in a general, where-do-I-start sense, but judging by the pricing author Spellman used for domain names and hosting, this book is badly out of date.

When I went to its "sister website" at musiciansinternet.com, nothing showed up. A whois search revealed a registrant located in Malaga, Spain, so I don't know what's really going on here. Perhaps Berklee Press would be wise to keep its sites really up to date to expand on the book as promised within its pages.

All in all though, this book does contain valuable suggestions, including some rather obvious ones as well as the more obscure. And it is written and organized in a very easy to read manner with no circuitous technical jargon or other stuff to weigh things down.

Bottom line: good info, quick read, but the book is out of date and its companion website nowhere to be found.

Peter Spellman's book "The Musician's Internet" covers everything you need to know about successfully selling and promoting your music on the internet. The book includes chapters on "Getting Listed in the Free Search Engines and Directories", "Communicating via Email with Fans, Teammates and Customers", "Sharing, Selling and Licensing your music Online", "Webcasting your shows via virtual nightclubs and other online venues", "Broadcasting over Internet Radio", "Signing a deal with off-line and online record labels", "Using the net as a library of music career guidance", "Tips for expanding your onliine presence", etc.

The book is well researched and contains many excellent resources with commentary from musicians to back it up. Just the sites listed in Appendix B, "Resources: Further food to feed your internet intelligence," would take countless hours of surfing to uncover. Highly recommended!

I had purchased this book based on the overall set of good reviews here but instantly smelled trouble from the first sentence on page 1, which reads, "The Internet (or 'Net' for short...") I'm surprised the author didn't go on to say how the 'Net' is also considered the cat's pajamas & bee's knees. 3/4ths of the helpful music industry links cited in the pages lead to dead end error pages. Some useful advice can be found but overall, the information about cultivating an online presence as a musician can also be culled from looking at your favorite artists' pages for ideas.

This book was probably quite helpful about ten years ago, but it is laughably out of date now. There should be some kind of warning to people that they shouldn't buy this book unless they're doing historical research on music and the internet. Consider this your warning.

I purchased this book in 2006 when I was writing for my MA at The University of Texas. Published in 2002, it is rather dated now. In fact, it was dated in many ways in 2006. The Internet evolves and morphs so rapidly, I imagine Peter Spellman himself would agree. I didn't use much from it. It's not a bad book, but I'd check it out of a library nowadays if they have it.

The World Wide Web is now a major portal for the music industry to "infect" the masses, and the producers are all for this expansion into the modern world. The internet has now become a launch pad for many small record labels that find it easier to survive a virtual environment than a real one. Things that novices don't know can kill the company from the start , things that are explained in this book using an easy structure and light information. Unfortunately, the book is just light, "The New Music Industry: How to Use the Power of the Internet to Multiply Your Industry Exposure, Fan Base and Income Potential Online!" by Ty Cohen is the complete book that give you all the insights into successful online business