This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion (This Business of Music: Marketing & Promotion) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Welcome to the world of selling sound-a demanding, complex, and at times mercurial (not to mention exciting) area of the entertainment industry..." (more)
Key Phrases: music marketer, music commerce, music marketing, Windham Hill, United States, Harry Fox Agency (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Thorough, well-written, logically presented, useful, insightful ... the definitive career guide and teaching aid for anyone interested in building an effective presence in the music industry. -- Roy Gattinella, Vice-President, Marketing and Sales, EMI-Capitol Entertainment

Product Description

An invaluable guide to planning and producing a complete marketing campaign for selling music to the listening public, this book arms readers with key strategies and tools to ensure that a musical recording reaches its full sales potential. 20 illustrations.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books; 2nd edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082307711X
• ISBN-13: 978-0823077113
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #912,749 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adequate, but not intended for musicians, January 9, 2002

By	"czinto" (Toronto) - See all my reviews

It seems that most reviewers are quite split on whether this is a "good" book or a "lousy" one. First off, reading the book I got a distinct impression that this book is not intended for musicians, it seems to be targeted more towards those in marketing who are familiar with marketing basics, but not about how they apply to the music industry.

There are much better books about the inner workings of the music industry (see books by Donald S. Passman and Moses Avalon.) There are much better books on marketing (see the "Guerrilla" series by Levinson and Godin). This book is adequate at introducing the music biz to marketing juniors, but not marketing to musicians.

One review wrote: "...dizzying amount of extremely useful information, all within an engrossing and enjoyable text" -- I find this review extremely suspect. I've read many books on both the music biz and marketing -- but this one is so mind-crushingly boring it's difficult to read and useful info is easily forgotten.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-rate Guide to Survival in the Music Business, December 3, 1999

By	Stanley Booth (Brunswick, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This excellent book is worth many times the purchase price. The average would-be professional musician, songwriter, or recording entrepreneur will require several lifetimes to use all the information it contains. "You don't get what you deserve," the great jazz drummer Roy Haynes once said. "You get what you negotiate." Knowing what this book teaches, you are armed with the facts concerning every conceivable aspect of surviving in the labyrinthine -- and sometimes treacherous -- world of music. Lathrop and Pettigrew are both seasoned music-business professionals whose credits range from the World Wide Web to various colleges and universities, as well as advertising and marketing companies and publicity campaigns for such spectacularly successful acts as ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers Band. Among the topics they cover are song writing, recording, publishing, promotion, advertising, and many different approaches to marketing, including sheet music, radio, film, television, and live performance. They even tell you in detail how to set up and use a Web Site. An additional lagniappe is the book's section of interviews with such veterans as Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records, a leading blues label. Highly recommended.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars YOU CAN BUY BETTER BOOKS THAN THIS ONE, March 28, 2001

By	Fred Decker (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin United States) - See all my reviews

This book is similar to KASHIF's book, EVERYTHING YOU'D BETTER KNOW ABOUT THE RECORD INDUSTRY. Both books are thorough and provide a good general overview, but Pettigrew and Lathrop are so dry and boring that they will put you to sleep, while Kashif is personable and tries to be interesting. (He doesn't always succeed). If you are in a band and you want specific, practical ideas that you can use, then Tim Sweeney may be a better choice for you.