A clear contender for the one indispensable work on the topic, this book delivers the goods. There is no one involved in the music business who will not learn and benefit from this ambitious work.
NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
This book gives you the real deal on the way the music business really works, whether youre new to the game or even if you think youre a veteranfrom contracts to touring, good and bad money decisions, and even creating a team no artists should do without.
SEAN PAUL, ATLANTIC RECORDING ARTIST
An indispensable compass to guide you through the trials, traumas, and occasional triumphs you will encounter in that most unusual life work called the music business.
BRUCE LUNDVALL, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE BLUE NOTE LABEL GROUP
This book is like a map, showing how to avoid the danger zones in the music business.
RIC OCASEK, RECORD PRODUCER, FORMER LEAD SINGER AND SONGWRITER FOR THE CARS
An absolute must for anyone interested in the music business. This is by far the most informative book on the business of music I have read to date, and its one that Ill refer back to regularly.
BIG HEC, RAPPER, PRODUCER, AND VIDEO MAGAZINE PUBLISHER
Attention classical musicians: this book is for you! In the rapidly changing world of the performing arts, it is more important than ever to understand fundamental business principles. This book explains it alland will save you a lot of time, aggravation, and money.
CHARLES LETOURNEAU, FORMER SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, IMG ARTISTS ARTISTIC CONSULTANT FOR THE NAPA VALLEY FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS AND OTHER ARTS ORGANIZATIONS
Peter Thall has made it his business to know everything thats worth knowing about the music world, and now hes sharing it with the world at large. Im frequently asked for the insiders view of the industry, and I always point them to Peters very useful and informative book.
ROGER FAXON, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING
Whoever reads this book is getting expert advice from one of the most respected and knowledgeable players in the music industry today. I wish this book was available when I was looking to begin my career in the music business.
DAVID RENZER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP
Copyright 2016 by Peter M. Thall
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com
WATSON-GUPTILL and the WG and Horse designs are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC
Previous editions were published by Billboard Books, New York in 2002, 2006
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thall, Peter M.
Title: What theyll never tell you about the music busines : the complete guide for musicians, songwriters, producers, managers, industry executives, attorneys and accountants / Peter M. Thall.
Description: Third edition. | Berkeley : Ten Speed Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016015721 (print) | LCCN 2016018133 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Music tradeLaw and legislationUnited States. | MusicEconomic aspectsUnited States. | CopyrightMusicUnited States. | Band musiciansLegal status, laws, etc.United States. | Popular musicWriting and publishing.
Classification: LCC ML3790 .T43 2016 (print) | LCC ML3790 (ebook) | DDC 780.23/73dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015721
Trade Paperback ISBN9781607749745
Ebook ISBN9781607749752
v4.1
a
CONTENTS
PREFACE
We are the music makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams,
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems
ARTHUR O SHAUGHNESSY
There are enough agents, accountants, attorneys, managers, and music publishers, not to mention friends and family, who are more than willingfor love or moneyto advise young artists (musicians, singers, and songwriters) in the pursuit of their careers.
Most of this advice is well-intentionedand it may even be timely and helpful. However, it may also be irrelevant to a particular individuals circumstances. The reasons for this are manifold.
Not the least of the problems in offering advice to young artists is the fact that they customarily have limited knowledge of the music industry. Unlike participants in other industries, the major players in the music business often enter the arena with neither a clear understanding of its workings and history nor the means to obtain the information that would convey such knowledge to them. The people who make up the heart and soul of the music industry do not usually know a break-even point from a producer point, a royalty from a prince, or a mechanical license from a synchronization licensein short, they dont know their business. In the course of writing this book, I have discussed various chapters with senior executives in different departments of major music business companies. At the end of the discussion, all of them told me, in so many words, You know, I learned a thing or two today. This is not to criticize them. As an attorney who has practiced in the music industry for more than forty years, I learned long ago that managers and executives in the music industry, unlike their highly trained peers who choose to work in the financial or real estate worlds, rarely have the requisite background to function in the industry at an optimal level. Yet these managers and executives are ultimately responsible for making the decisions that will make or break their companies.
The music industry executives strength is enhanced only when the company he or she joins has an established and tested management training program. Although the institutions that form the music publishing and recording industry today are very well set up for precisely this kind of training, it is unlikely that these companies will also give the fledgling executive the information that I am seeking to impart in this book. For the personal manager and business manager in whose hands the artist and the record and publishing companies place their trust, this book is intended to provide not just informational data, but also a perspective that will help them to become more aware of the parts of the business which no one will teach them, but which they must nonetheless understand if they are to perform their functions effectively.
Ironically, when it comes to artists, it is widely accepted that really creative people do not know their business. After all, arent they living in the realm of the ideathe eigenweltthe world that is interesting precisely because it is not the mitweltthe shared world, the concrete, tangible world that can be objectively evaluated? The late Northrup Frye, one of the 20th centurys preeminent literary critics, and a noted commentator on Canadian society and culture, gave an acclaimed series of lectures at the University of Toronto several decades ago. In these lectures, published as