All You Need to Know About the Music Business: 9th Edition

“The industry bible” (Los Angeles Times), now updated, essential for anyone in the music business—musicians, songwriters, lawyers, agents, promoters, publishers, executives, and managers—trying to navigate the rapid transformation of the industry.

For more than twenty years, All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been universally regarded as the definitive guide to the music industry. Now in its ninth edition, this latest edition leads novices and experts alike through the crucial, up-to-the-minute information on the industry’s major changes in response to today’s rapid technological advances and uncertain economy.

Whether you are—or aspire to be—a performer, writer, or executive, veteran music lawyer Donald Passman’s comprehensive guide is an indispensable tool. He offers timely, authoritative information from how to select and hire a winning team of advisors and structure their commissions and fees; navigate the ins and outs of record deals, songwriting, publishing, and copyrights; maximize concert, touring, and merchandising deals; understand the digital streaming services; and how to take a comprehensive look at the rapidly transforming landscape of the music business as a whole.

The music industry is in the eye of the storm, when everyone in the business is scrambling to figure out what’s going to happen to the major labels and what it will mean for the careers of artists and business professionals. No musician, songwriter, entertainment lawyer, agent, promoter, publisher, manager, or record company executive—anyone who makes their living from music—can afford to be without All You Need to Know About the Music Business. As Adam Levine, lead singer and guitarist of Maroon 5, says, “If you want to be in music, you have to read this book.”

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. First Steps

PART I Your Team of Advisors
Chapter 2. How to Pick a Team
Chapter 3. Personal Managers
Chapter 4. Business Managers
Chapter 5. Attorneys
Chapter 6. Agents

PART II Record Deals
Chapter 7. Broad-Strokes Overview of the Record Business
Chapter 8. Advances and Recoupment
Chapter 9. Real-Life Numbers
Chapter 10. Other Major Deal Points
Chapter 11. Producer and Mixer Deals
Chapter 12. Advanced Royalty Computations
Chapter 13. Advanced Record Deal Points
Chapter 14. Loan-out, Independent Production, Label, and Distribution Deals

PART III Songwriting and Music Publishing
Chapter 15. Copyright Basics
Chapter 16. Publishing Companies and Major Income Sources
Chapter 17. Secondary Publishing Income
Chapter 18. Songwriter Deals
Chapter 19. Copublishing and Administration Deals
Chapter 20. Advanced Copyright Concepts
Chapter 21. Even More Advanced Copyright Concepts

PART IV Group Issues
Chapter 22. Groups

PART V Touring
Chapter 23. Personal Appearances—Touring

PART VI Merchandising
Chapter 24. Tour Merchandising
Chapter 25. Retail Merchandising

PART VII Classical Music
Chapter 26. Classical Music

PART VIII Motion Picture Music
Chapter 27. Overview of Motion Picture Music
Chapter 28. Performer Deals
Chapter 29. Film Songwriter Deals
Chapter 30. Composer Agreements
Chapter 31. Licensing Existing Recordings and Existing Songs for Motion Pictures
Chapter 32. Music Supervisors
Chapter 33. Soundtrack Album Deals