Ultimate Survival Guide for the New Music Industry: A Handbook for Hell [Paperback]

Justin Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

From setting up an indie label to shopping songs and gaining airplay and getting signed (or not), these invaluable insights are vividly documented in a detailed, informative guide to creating a career in music.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

PLEASE MAKE CORRECTION: The CD that accompanies this book is NOT an audio CD. The disc is a CD-ROM. The disc is a music industry contact directory. Could you please make this important change. There is NO music on this CD-ROM

From the Inside Flap

"The beauty of this whole thing is that there’s a guy who’s playing a gig tonight in a shitty club with sawdust on the floor who’s going to be the next Dave Matthews Band. Somehow—without radio, without promotion, with a van, a little CD burner and his laptop—he’s going to reach millions of people. We don’t know who that is, but I know he’s out there."
—Ron Fair, Producer and President of A&M Records

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Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Lone Eagle (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580650481
• ISBN-13: 978-1580650489
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #600,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Music Business Jewel of a Book, March 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ultimate Survival Guide for the New Music Industry: A Handbook for Hell (Paperback)

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 The problem with my old favorites is the basics are there, but they are really outdated with the current changes in the music industry.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.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth the Money, November 29, 2004

By 

John W. Turner (Detroit) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultimate Survival Guide for the New Music Industry: A Handbook for Hell (Paperback)

I am truly puzzled by the other reviews of this book. I'm wondering if maybe I bought a different edition or something, because the book I read had none of the things others are describing, and none of the things promised in the promo copy.

I bought this book based on the reviews. My goal was to learn how to release independent music (my own). For example, the promo copy for the book specifically says that readers will learn "how to effectively release independent albums". Yet on reading the book, the guide to releasing an independent album was nowhere to be found. Reading the book, the only things I found that even remotely resembled advice on how to release an independent album were anecdotal comments from a few industry executives along the lines of "it is different now than it was back in the day, now you just have to be ready to do whatever you need to do, and remember to follow up." Absolutely no help at all.

The book consists entirely of anecdotal interviews with various music industry executives. There are no step by step guides. There are no checklists, there are no plans. Just the author interviewing industry execs. These execs in turn ramble and reminisce about things that happened in the distant past, how they got their start, who they worked with, etc. No concrete information whatsoever.

The book NEVER mentions the CD-ROM that was included. The CD-ROM is not covered in the table of contents, nor is it addressed in the book itself. You would think that an author might write something like "the first thing you need is a contract (see the file named contract.doc in the FILES directory on the CD)". If you read this book, you will see nothing of the sort.

In short, this book DOES NOT do the following: specifically explain how to release an independent album, explain how to create revenue through licensing and other opportunities, explain how to get your music into major retail outlets, how to gain radio airplay, or how to setup songwriting copyrights and music publishing companies.

For example, in the section dealing with getting your music into major retail outlets, the author simply interviews an industry exec, and asks questions like "how do you get your music into retail outlets". The answer is typically "it is really difficult to do so, you just have to keep trying and keep sending promo copies and keep following up until you get a break". This is nonsense, and absolutely no help. Who should we call? Who should we send promo copies to? How about suggestions for cover letters? Preferred distribution formats? Minimum quantities? Pricing structures?

I specifically wanted information on how to setup a licensing company or other business structure for my music, and a guide for setting up an independent label to release the same music. I found none of this in this book, though judging from the book's description, this information is exactly what I should find. By "guide" I mean specific suggestions and advice, not interviews with random people telling me it is hard work and to just keep trying.

All in all, an extremely unsatisfying book. If there was a "no star" rating I would have chosen it. I should point out that I have co-authored two books myself (both available here on Amazon) so I know what it takes to deliver a "how-to" book. I gave this book more than a few chances to give me the information I was looking for, because returning it or selling it used is a hassle. In the end, after the book consistently failed to provide specific info, I returned it.

Disclaimer: I did not open the CD-ROM. I never do until I am certain that I will be keeping the book, because I want to preserve my option to return the book if needed. Some of the things promised for the book may or may not be on the CD-ROM.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Did not deliver as expected, March 18, 2005

By 

Pixie (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultimate Survival Guide for the New Music Industry: A Handbook for Hell (Paperback)

This is not a "How-To" book, so much as a collection of interviews with diverse people in the industry. While the interviews were interesting and had some relevant information, and the author has obviously spent alot of time in the business, the CD-Rom was a complete disappointment. First, it's Windows only which it doesn't say anywhere that I could see. So I spent time trying to open it on my Mac, before realizing this. Second, once I did get it onto a windows machine, it didn't auto-launch. Once it did launch, there was a nicely done intro piece that lead to... a very unprofessional and hard-to-use user interface. To add insult to injury, the items I wanted most were apparently not available without some sort of membership; so I felt I was being given a "Hard-sell", on a product I had already purchased.

I tried to get to the "sample pages" and documents that sounded interesting and useful to me, but the CD kept looping me back to promote a particular band, and to "sign up for this website", which I did not want to do. It began to look like the whole reason the CD-Rom was created, was to get people to sign up - to what seems to be a very poorly structured, unprofessional website that I frankly couldn't find when I tried to, by URL! To give credit where it's due, the CD-Rom does seem to be somewhat useful as a reference tool for non-commercial radio stations and the like, but I didn't feel it was exclusive info not available elsewhere.

I have a band and my own indie label. The books I have found to be MOST helpful so far in getting off the ground are:

Label Launch: A Guide to Independent Record Recording, Promotion, and Distribution by Veronika Kalmar - covers all the basics. This is a great book to start with & get a feel for the whole process, especially the business paperwork & such.

Start and Run Your Own Record Label, Revised and Expanded Edition by Daylle Deanna Schwartz - this one is short and sweet, covering a little bit about alot of topics. It doesn't go in depth into anything, but the bits & pieces can be extremely useful!

and a book I downloaded in PDF format called, "How to Promote your Music on the Internet" (also available in bound edition)- I have just begun this book, and it seems to be a real treasure trove of information! With a bit of creativity, a positive outlook and some hard work, I believe I will get farther with this book than with any other I've found yet!

Hope this is helpful...