Cool Book About Music Business

[Bingo]

So a friend of mine just had a book published about his days in the music business.

This guy has done it all and been through it all.

Check out some of these quotes about him:

“Tony has long been one of the UK’s foremost record promoters and undoubtedly one of the best U2 has had the pleasure of working with."
-- Paul McGuinness
Manager, U2

“Tony Michaelides is a legend. Tony gave me my first job in the music industry and he'll always be a legend to me. His enthusiasm for plugging and life in general is contagious and reading his stories kept me entertained from cover to cover!”
-- Estelle Wilkinson
Manager, Coldplay

It goes on from there.

If anyone is looking for a pretty interesting and unique book or gift, you can do far worse than this.

http://www.insightscollection.com/

B

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Does it touch on the state of the industry now?

[Bingo]

No it doesn't. Interesting you ask though.

He gave a talk just this past Monday at the headquarters for a local production company/promotion agency.

Some of the invited guests were people in the music business from around the area (There's actually a remarkable amount of people with some serious credentials living around here. It's weird).

After the talk there was some Q&A from a bunch of folks trying to get into the business. The whole thing just devolved into this like 2-hour long talk until about 11pm on the current state of the industry. The owner of the place got all into it and everyone just sort of agreed we all needed to get together again and just start doing something like a local conference on the music business of today and do it maybe once every couple of months.

It really was fascinating and I know I learned a lot and just loved hearing it all.

One of the most interesting moments was when this one guy.. looked maybe about 21-22 years old stood up:

"Yeah, my name is <whatever> and I was wondering.. I'm in a band - we are getting gigs. We are working and seem to be doing alright. What I want to know though... how do we make that next step. How do we get a recording contract?"

Tony's immediate response was:

"A recording contract is the last thing you want. It sucks. It's the absolute worst thing that can happen to you. You really need to realize that right now."

You should have seen the guys face. Over the next 10 minutes or so Tony went on to explain why and the whole time you could just see it in this guy that he was realizing that pretty much every single thing he thought he knew about the business was all wrong.

Oh, and here's a picture of the place where this all took place. Coolest room ever.

The ceiling is a 2 story high domed ceiling topped with a skylight. The center of the table is all glass and looks down 4 stories to the lobby of the building. Behind where I'm standing is a gallery of stadium-style seats for about another 80 people or so. Really impressive place to say the least!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/4189159332_7dc387bb85_b.jpg

[EXEcution]

Has this guy ever written a book before? Because looking at the excerpts (http://www.insightscollection.com/index.php/excerpt.html).... well this guy isn't a writer.

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Can't find the link but look at what Trent Reznor has done since he left his label. Made 10x as much cash.

[EXEcution]

Can't find the link but look at what Trent Reznor has done since he left his label. Made 10x as much cash.

Trent is very wise. Although he had plenty of money to start off with, his direct-to-consumer approach was "risky" but effective. If a band doesn't mind doing their own marketing (this way they can actually learn another valuable and practical skill besides playing music) they will already have an edge over a band who may produce better music, but has no idea how to distribute it.