This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion
You may not agree, but even if you never intend to play your guitar outside of your living room, it’s important to what’s going on in the world outside. If nothing else, understanding the difference between music and the music business is vital to give you an understanding of why there’s such a difference between the music one hears at one’s local venue and the music that is played over the radio. So many people take too much of this too seriously (and far too personally), yet the truth is very simple: once you (or anyone) wants to make a living from art, the art itself is secondary to the business aspect.
So let’s say you’ve gotten this concept into your head and now want to pursue, to the best of your ability naturally, various avenues of getting your music out to the world. Tad Lathrop’s book, This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion, is a virtual encyclopedia of information and ideas for you to draw on.
Like Dayelle Deanna Schwartz, Tad walks you through practically every scenario you can expect to run into in the world of music business. He begins with an overview – looking at the total parketing process from the record company’s viewpoint as well as the often-overlooked standpoint of the music publisher’s. By previewing the entire marketing scenario on a grand scale, he can then walk you through it in a personal and inimate manner. Whether you have a big record contract or are simply selling your CD over the internet, knowing the importance of things like packaging and pricing (he has an excellent chapter on calculating the profitablilty of a recording), distribution and non-store sales methods can make all the difference in the world to how people get to hear your music. Even something as small as defining your product and analyzing its appeal (both obvious and hidden ones) can help you immensely as you take your music out of your house and place it in the homes of others.
In addition to marketing, there are also tons of ideas about promotion, not to mention generaing revenue from writing and publishing. Tad discusses both the traditional venues, such as live performances and interviews, as well as the “new” ones, such as cross-promotions, non-music revenues, working the overseas markets and, of course, the use of the internet.
His style is friendly and even though you might find this book initially overwhelming, there are a lot of good and important tips to be gleaned from This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion. As I mentioned at the beginning, even if you have no intention of ever promoting your own music, you might want to read a book like this in order to gain a better understanding of what artists who do get their music out into the world have to go through. You may still not like their music very much but you may develop an appreciation of what it took for them to get it heard.
