Music: The Business

Music: The Business, The Essential Guide to the Law, and the Deals

Price: £20.50
Website: http://www.virginbooks.com

Review by Nigel Lord

music: the business book cover Most books on the subject of getting into the music business have that dubious ‘send us a tenner and we’ll tell you the secret formula’ quality of an ad in a local paper. Some would say there’s something rather suspect about any guide to working in an industry whose appeal is based on individualism and creativity.

But it ain’t necessarily so. In Music: The Business, entertainment lawyer Ann Harrison proves that it’s not only possible to write the definitive guide to the business side of the industry, but that we, as musicians, don’t need to feel we’re supping with the Devil by acquainting ourselves with the facts. On the contrary, we would be pretty dumb to ignore them…

Of course, we’d be in good company. History is littered with the names of pop stars who failed to understand the nature of the business they were in (invariably those whose managers and agents understood it all too well). Had they had access to a book like this, the history of popular music might have been very different.

Ann Harrison seems to be unique in the legal profession in understanding both how the music business works and its attraction to those who would – and in some cases did – sell their souls to be part of it. For the reader, there’s the sense of a first-class legal mind at work, but without the ‘apostrophising’ of popular culture, which suggests the author inhabits an entirely different world.

There are examples of this in the book, like the judge who refused to accept that the photo shoot for Oasis’ Be Here Now album cover constituted a work of ‘artistic craftsmanship’. But stories like this entertaining read as well as an informative one. Harrison uses her experience as ‘lawyer to the stars’ not to impress but to highlight the pitfalls that can beset musicians at all levels – whether they’re choosing a name, crediting sample sources or deciding which record deal to accept.

Don’t mistake this book for one of those offerings by someone at the margins of the business who scratches out a living by knocking up the odd book and producing whale music CDs for the high street candle‘n’karma shops. Music: The Business is essential reading. Just about the only criticism you can make of it is that it’s not published in paperback. Musicians reluctant to shell out on replacement fuses for their gear are unlikely to invest over £20 on a hardback – unless they’ve already suffered legal problems. NL

•••••••••• 9/10

Score: 9/10

This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 03
Filed under Books

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