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Recommended books
Here you can read my reviews of books of interest to internet musicians and buy them through Amazon in the UK and the US. There are many more books available using the search boxes at the foot of the page.
On this page:- The Manual : How to Have a Number One the Easy Way
- Good Vibrations: A History of Record Production
- The Self-Promoting Musician : Strategies for Independent Music Success
- The Complete Guide to Internet Promotion for Musicians, Artists, & Songwriters
- The Independent Musician's Contact Bible
- Amazon recommends
- Other books
The Manual : How to Have a Number One the Easy Way
By The KLF
When this book was first published, The KLF were riding the glory of their first number one hit 'Doctorin' The Tardis' under the guise of The Timelords. At the time, dance music based on beats rather than choons was fresh to the charts and sampling was being used lazily to borrow hooks from old songs. The KLF's formula is based on taking someone else's catchy melody, writing a shouty chorus and getting an experienced engineer to pull it together. On the upside, their method requires no technical skill and the original edition even came with a money-back guarantee for those who followed the guidelines but failed to chart. On the downside, it is preaching the case for dumbing down pop music. One band is known to have followed the KLF's formula to success with an annoying novelty record based on 'Edelweiss', but the book is candid about the fact that the formula will only work once and will not start a serious career. Since it was published, the charts have moved on and the formula doesn't hold (although much of the general advice does). Whether or not you intend to follow the formula, it's a classic read. It's particularly amusing the way that the band claims the hit single can be recorded without spending any cash up front (and shows how) and the way there is a daily schedule that starts with listening to the chart run down on a Sunday night. After being unavailable for years, this book has recently been reissued. It's a lot of fun for anyone interested in how the charts work and how they might get a slice of the action.
- Buy The Manual from Amazon.co.uk (UK customers)
- Buy The Manual from Amazon.com (US and international customers)
Good Vibrations: A History of Record Production
By Mark Cunningham (Foreword: Brian Eno)
My favourite anecdote from this book is where Freddie Mercury is playing Bohemian Rhapsody to producer Roy Thomas Baker for the first time. He's played the chord sequence on a piano and sung the first verse when he stops suddenly. "This," he said, "is where the opera section comes in!" Baker just fell about laughing, but went on to record the most ambitious single of all time. This book is about moments like this: creative mavericks who had the vision to push the technology to its limit. Classic albums such as Tubular Bells, Pet Sounds and Dark Side of the Moon; bands like The Beatles and Genesis and producers like Brian Eno and Phil Spector receive generous coverage and analysis. The book shows how technology has shaped the sound of records over the decades and also looks at how bands and producers have refused to be constrained by what was considered possible or sensible. Spector's Wall of Sound is broken down, the emergence of the synthesiser and sampling is contrasted with early tape delay technologies, and those who were there at key moments in pop history reveal how milestone singles and albums came about. Excellently researched and entertainingly written, the book is inspiring in showing what has been achieved with determination and little technology and educational in sketching the history of music as we hear it. Book includes a good glossary of record production jargon and a guide to recommended listening.
- Buy Good Vibrations from Amazon.co.uk (UK customers)
- Buy Good Vibrations from Amazon.com (US and international customers)
The Self-Promoting Musician : Strategies for Independent Music Success (Music Business)
By Peter Spellman
This book is subtitled 'strategies for independent music success' and promotes a broad understanding of what that success might mean. You can keep control of your career and work in the music business, but it might mean sacrificing dreams of heavy rotation on MTV. This book gives equal weight to diverse markets such as soundtracks, computer game music, business functions, weddings and local gigs. The book includes advice for performers on how to promote the band, researching possible markets, management and setting up a record label. Statistics pepper the book that suggest it's getting easier for musicians to promote themselves, and extensive website listings give follow-up opportunities for further information. Being written for a US-only audience, the book sometimes slips into irrelevance for UK readers (contact details for US trade bodies, for example), but the ideas can usually still be applied over here with a bit more research. This book is a good starting point for competent musicians who want to use their talent at work and need to gather ideas on how to effectively promote themselves.
The Complete Guide to Internet Promotion for Musicians, Artists, & Songwriters
By John Dawes & Tim Sweeney
This book is useful for working bands that want to improve their presence online. The book emphasises the need to promote the site offline and to coordinate real world promotions with internet work, but also includes a chapter dedicated to using search engines and selling music online.
The Independent Musician's Contact Bible
By David Wimble
The internet makes communication with record companies cheaper, but sometimes a lot of time is wasted finding the right website. Finding a good 'guru' site with all the links you need is a help, but can still be slow by the time the site has plastered adverts all over it. David Wimble's book, The Indie Contact Bible, aims to solve this problem by providing a print directory of websites in the music industry. Some of the websites are contact points for real-world radio stations and companies, but many are web-only ventures and fanzines. The book includes sites that will review your music, radio stations that might play it, promotion services, music distribution websites and free band promotion sites. Each section is subdivided by genre and country, making it easy to find what you're looking for. It's rather dry reading, most of the book being just site titles and addresses, but it does include over 3000 websites making it extremely useful for anyone serious about promoting their music online.
Amazon recommends:
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