Business Books

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

Lawrence Lessig

Amazon Price: $16.35 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Press HC, The Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $15.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Reference -> Business of Art
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Performing Arts
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Culture

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The author of Free Culture shows how we harm our children—and almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form—with a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable “hybrid economy”.

Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, spotlights the newest and possibly the most harmful culture war—a war waged against our kids and others who create and consume art. America’s copyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficial role: protecting artists’ creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalizes those very actions.

For many, new technologies have made it irresistible to flout these unreasonable and ultimately untenable laws. Some of today’s most talented artists are felons, and so are our kids, who see no reason why they shouldn’t do what their computers and the Web let them do, from burning a copyrighted CD for a friend to “biting” riffs from films, videos, songs, etc and making new art from them.

Criminalizing our children and others is exactly what our society should not do, and Lessig shows how we can and must end this conflict—a war as ill conceived and unwinnable as the war on drugs. By embracing “read-write culture,” which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it, we can ensure that creators get the support—artistic, commercial, and ethical—that they deserve and need. Indeed, we can already see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the “sharing economy” evident in such Web sites as Wikipedia and YouTube. The hybrid economy will become ever more prominent in every creative realm—from news to music—and Lessig shows how we can and should use it to benefit those who make and consume culture.

Remix is an urgent, eloquent plea to end a war that harms our children and other intrepid creative users of new technologies. It also offers an inspiring vision of the post-war world where enormous opportunities await those who view art as a resource to be shared openly rather than a commodity to be hoarded.

Bumping Into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business

Danny Goldberg

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Gotham Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $14.66

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Skills -> Communications
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Business
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Musical Genres -> Rock

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A giant of the music industry grants an all-access pass to the world of rock and roll, with mesmerizing stories of thirty-five years spent working with legends from Led Zeppelin, to Stevie Nicks, to Nirvana.

Danny Goldberg has been a hugely influential figure in the world of rock and roll. He did PR for Led Zeppelin; he managed the career of Nirvana; he ran Atlantic Records, Mercury Records, and Warner Bros. Records; he launched Stevie Nicks’s solo career. In Bumping into Geniuses, Goldberg shares his stories about performers who represent a broad and powerful portion of the psychic real estate of the rock and roll kingdom: Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, KISS, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Hole, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle, Led Zeppelin, and more.

But there’s more to this story than just Goldberg’s varied career. It’s also a look at the industry itself: a business that was neither the romantic vehicle for self-expression that its most naive fans imagined, nor the purely crass money machine depicted by its most cynical critics. It was complex and chaotic—a mixture of art and commerce, idealism and selfishness—and sometimes, rock’s most gifted and influential musicians were able to transcend it all.

For anyone interested in the rock and roll industry, or simply the mores and temperaments of the musicians themselves, Bumping into Geniuses is an incredible insider’s tale that only Goldberg could tell.

Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

Richard Branson

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $6.36

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Business
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 130 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this autobiography, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says one of his prime business criteria is "fun." Fun made Branson a billionaire, and few business memoirs are one-billionth as fun as Branson's, nor as niftily written. Not only does it relate his side of near-death corporate experiences, it tells how the chairman literally cheated death by gun, shipwreck, and balloon crash.

Branson's empire--now encompassing interests in an airline, pop music, soda pop, e-commerce, and financial services--began when the dyslexic 16-year-old dropped out of school in 1968 to found the British magazine Student. His headmaster said, "I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire." Briefly imprisoned for dodging customs selling records, Branson got his first million by releasing Tubular Bells, a maverick recording all the stuffy executives rejected. (1998's Tubular Bells III puts the series' sales over 20 million.)

Despite wild tales of Branson's wife-swapping and Keith Richards fleeing naked from Branson's studio at gunpoint with another man's woman, the most shocking parts of the memoir concern British Airways' James Bond-like "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin Atlantic, resulting in the biggest award for damages in English history.

Though it's filled with famous names, witty quotes, and pulse-pounding accounts of lunatic balloon adventures, it is as a business thriller that the book really scores. His instinctive bet-the-ranch tactics could cost him all, or earn another billion. Either way, Branson will likely remain the most entertaining entrepreneur in Europe. --Tim Appelo

All You Need To Know About the Music Business: 6th Edition

Donald S. Passman

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $12.21

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Business
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For fifteen years, All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been universally regarded as the definitive, essential guide to the music industry. Now in its sixth edition, it has been completely revised and updated with crucial, up-to-the-minute information on the industry's major changes in response to today's rapid technological advances and uncertain economy. Veteran music lawyer Donald Passman is in the thick of this transformation and understands that anyone involved in the music business is feeling the deep, far-reaching effects of it. This latest edition of what the Los Angeles Times called "the industry bible" will lead novices and experts alike through the fundamental practices as well as the new, uncharted territory of one of this country's most dynamic industries.

In the music business, the key to success lies in knowing how to protect yourself. To do that, you need the best and most up-to-date advice available. Whether you are -- or aspire to be -- a performer, writer, or executive, Passman's comprehensive guide to the legal and financial aspects of the music world is an indispensable tool. Drawing on his unique professional experience as one of the most trusted advisors in the industry, Passman offers authoritative information on how to:

• Select and hire a winning team of advisors -- personal and business managers, agents, and attorneys -- and structure their commissions, percentages, and fees in a way that will protect you and maximize these relationships
• Master the big picture and the finer points of record deals
• Navigate the ins and outs of songwriting, music publishing, and copyrights
• Maximize concert, touring, and merchandising deals

This latest edition also includes information on:

• Music downloads, webcasting, streaming-on-demand, and podcasting
• The new video streaming services
• How royalties are computed in the digital age
• The latest developments in deals with independent labels, including upstream deals
• Updates on all the traditional industry matters, such as royalties, advances, video budgets, and copyright law

In All You Need to Know About the Music Business, one of the industry's most influential figures shows you how to thrive in the most exciting business in the world. It's a book that no musician, entertainment lawyer, agent, promoter, publisher, manager, record company executive -- anyone who makes their living from music -- can afford to be without.

iPod: The Missing Manual

Jude Biersdorfer, David Pogue

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $9.54

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Software Engineering -> Information Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Digital Music -> iPods
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Digital Music -> iTunes

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Have you recently upgraded to a new iPod--Classic, Nano, Shuffle, or Touch--and want to learn about all the new features? Or, do you just want more information on the latest version of iTunes, the App Store and a whole lot more about Apple's incredible device? If so, you need an easy illustrated guide to get the most out of your sleek little entertainment center. iPod: The Missing Manual will get you rockin' in no time.

Preview Tips from iPod: The Missing Manual

Set Up Multiple iTunes Libraries Many households have just one computer for the whole family. Wouldn't it be great if everyone had a personal iTunes library? To use multiple libraries, follow these steps: 1.Quit iTunes 2. Hold down the Shift [Option] key on your PC or Mac keyboard and launch iTunes. In the box that pops up, click Create Library and give it a name.

3. iTunes opens up, but with a blank library with nothing in it. If you have music in your main library that you want to move over to this one, choose File--> Add to Library. 4. Navigate to the music you want and add it. If the songs are in your original library, they're probably in My Documents-->My Music--> iTunes-->iTunes Music [Home-->Music-->iTunes-->iTunes Music] in folders sorted by Artist name. Choose the files you want and add. To switch between libraries, just hold down the Shift [Option] key when you're starting iTunes, and you'll get a box that lets you pick the one you want. (The program opens the last library if you don't choose one.) Tracks from CDs you rip go into whatever library's open. And now that you have those songs in this library, you can switch back to the other one and get rid of them there.

Change a Song's Start and Stop Times Got a song with onstage chitchat before it starts or after the music ends? Fortunately, you don't have to sit there and listen. You can a change a song's start and stop times so you hear only the juicy middle part. As you play the song you want to adjust, observe the iTunes status display window; watch for the point in the timeline where you get bored. Then: 1. Click the track you want to adjust. 2. Choose File-->Get Info to call up the song's information box. 3. Click the Options tab and take a look at the Stop Time box, which shows the full duration of the song. 4. Enter the new stopping point for the song, as you noted earlier. You can perform the exact same trick at the beginning of a song by adjusting the time value in the Start Time box.

Move the iTunes Music Folder to an External Drive Media libraries grow and hard drives shrink as thousands of song and videos fill up the space. You may be thinking of getting a big external hard drive to use for iTunes storage, and if so, make sure iTunes knows what you intend to do. If you rudely drag the iTunes Music folder to a different place without telling iTunes, it thinks the songs and videos in your collection are gone. The next time you start the program, you'll find it empty. To move the iTunes Music folder to a new drive, just let the program know where you're putting it. Move the folder to the desired location, then, in the Preferences box, click the Advanced icon or tab. In the area labeled "iTunes Music folder location," click the Change button, and navigate to the place where you moved the folder. Finally, click OK.

Make a Genius Playlist in iTunes With the Genius feature, you click any song that you're in the mood for and iTunes brings back a playlist of 25 to 100 songs that it thinks go well with the one you picked. Here's the procedure: 1. Click a song title in your library. 2. Click the Genius button at the bottom of the iTunes window. 3. iTunes presents you with your new playlist in a flash. 4. Use the buttons at the top of the Genius window to adjust the number of songs in the playlist, refresh it with new songs if you want a different mix, and--best of all--save the playlist permanently.

Make Playlist Folders If you like to have a playlist or five for every occasion, but find your iTunes Source list is getting crowded, iTunes lets you store multiple playlists inside convenient folders. 1. To add a folder to your Source list, click the Source list's Library icon and then choose File-->New Playlist Folder. 2. A new "untitled folder" appears, inviting you to change it's name to something more original. 3. Drag any playlists you want to store inside the folder onto its icon. If the whole family shares one computer, folders can give each person a tidy receptacle to store his or her personal playlists. Folders are also great for storing a bunch of playlists that go well together. That way, when you select the folder and hit play, iTunes plays all the folder's songs consecutively.

Confessions of a Video Vixen

Karrine Steffans

Amazon Price: $10.92 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Amistad Amazon Marketplace: 84 new & used starting at $6.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 462 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Videos Can Have Her Readers Don't Want Her 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am not sure where to start on this one. This book was a recommendation from a friend and as an avid reader I tried it on for size. Well, It took me one day to read it becasue I refused to waste another. I can never start a book and then stop, so I had to finish it, but believe me when I tell you, it had nothing to do with the story. I think that Ms. Steffans has some soul searching to do. I was hoping (praying) that redemption was somewhere between the covers, but I was disappointed. I think that Ms. Steffans is a master hustler. I don't hate the player, nor do I hate the game in this case. What I hate is the story and the fact that she simply took the oldest profession in the world and tried to sell it to readers as though it was something new. Karrine, I'm not mad at you girl. If those men let you use them like that then they each deserve what they got. I can't believe that men as innovative and successful as Jay-Z and Puffy would even have anything to do with the likes of you, but then again; they are men, so it is what it is.

Editorial Review:

An instant bestseller upon publication, Confessions of a Video Vixen is the page-turning memoir of Karrine Steffans: dancer, actress, and companion to many a celebrity. But more than a glimpse at what happens in the boardrooms and bedrooms of hip hop's A list, Confessions of a Video Vixen is also the first true account of how women are treated in the music industry, and its honest, direct revelations have generated debates and controversy across the country.

By sharing her story, Steffans hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry and help young women avoid the same pitfalls she encountered--and if they're already in danger, she hopes to inspire them to find a way to pull themselves out of what she knows firsthand to be a cycle of hopelessness and despair.

iPod & iTunes For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Tony Bove

Amazon Price: $14.95 List Price: $21.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $11.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Digital Music -> iPods
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Digital Music -> iTunes
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Digital Music -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whether you’re completely new to iPod and iTunes or you’d like to discover advanced techniques for playing, managing, browsing, buying, and storing music and other files, iPod & iTunes For Dummies, 6^th Edition can help you! The iPod and iTunes have revolutionized how we enjoy music, and this bestselling guide has been updated to keep you current. Here’s how to use the newest iPods, set up iTunes on your Mac or PC, purchase music and movies, rip CDs, organize your media library, make the most of digital sound, and so much more!

The latest iPods are much more than just digital music players. Now, surf the Web, rent movies, buy songs and directly download them, send and receive e-mails, store photos, play slideshows, watch videos, and play games. You’ll find information about all iPod models and how to set up iTunes so you can start enjoying your iPod right away. You’ll learn how to:

• Learn how to use the iPod displays and scrolling wheels
• Install iTunes and load your music
• Keep your library organized so you can search, browse, and sort
• Create playlists and burn CDs
• Use your iPod as a hard drive
• Share content legally
• Synchronize your e-mail, contacts, and bookmarks

Complete with lists of ten common problems and solutions, and eleven tips for the equalizer, iPod & iTunes for Dummies, 6^th Edition includes bonus chapters about early iPod models, creating content for iPod, tips for working with MusicMatch, using your iPod for backup and restore, and 14 web sources for additional information.

Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop

Amazon Price: $21.46 List Price: $29.67 Usually ships in 7 to 11 days By: Black Dog Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $21.07

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Reference -> Shopping & Commerce
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Business
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Musical Genres -> Popular

Editorial Review:

There is nothing quite like the feeling of thumbing through LP after LP in a dusty old record shop, only to stumble upon some hidden treasure, new obsession or forgotten love. Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is a homage to the holy places of music collecting, complete with their particular anecdotes, peculiar characters, and unique environments.

Emma Pettit, formerly of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, has travelled across the UK and America into these eclectic spaces of musical exchange, interviewing record shop owners, collectors and musicians to provide a rich account of the increasingly rare independent record shop. Featured shops include Other Music (New York), Aquarius Records (San Francisco), Amoeba Records (California) and Jazz Record Mart (Chicago). The first comprehensive look at these important institutions, Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is an essential read for the musically inclined.

Featuring contributions by Byron Coley (Ecstatic Yod), James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers), Simon Reynolds, Devendra Banhart, Billy Childish, Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne), Sean Bidder (Vinyl Factory), Rob Da Bank (Bestival) and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy.

Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

Steve Knopper

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Not yet published By: Free Press

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Business
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> History & Criticism
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General

Editorial Review:

For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the epic story of the precipitous rise and fall of the recording industry over the past three decades, when the incredible success of the CD turned the music business into one of the most glamorous, high-profile industries in the world -- and the advent of file sharing brought it to its knees. In a comprehensive, fast-paced account full of larger-than-life personalities, Rolling Stone contributing editor Steve Knopper shows that, after the incredible wealth and excess of the '80s and '90s, Sony, Warner, and the other big players brought about their own downfall through years of denial and bad decisions in the face of dramatic advances in technology.

Big Music has been asleep at the wheel ever since Napster revolutionized the way music was distributed in the 1990s. Now, because powerful people like Doug Morris and Tommy Mottola failed to recognize the incredible potential of file-sharing technology, the labels are in danger of becoming completely obsolete. Knopper, who has been writing about the industry for more than ten years, has unparalleled access to those intimately involved in the music world's highs and lows. Based on interviews with more than two hundred music industry sources -- from Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. to renegade Napster creator Shawn Fanning -- Knopper is the first to offer such a detailed and sweeping contemporary history of the industry's wild ride through the past three decades. From the birth of the compact disc, through the explosion of CD sales in the '80s and '90s, the emergence of Napster, and the secret talks that led to iTunes, to the current collapse of the industry as CD sales plummet, Knopper takes us inside the boardrooms, recording studios, private estates, garage computer labs, company jets, corporate infighting, and secret deals of the big names and behind-the-scenes players who made it all happen.

With unforgettable portraits of the music world's mighty and formerly mighty; detailed accounts of both brilliant and stupid ideas brought to fruition or left on the cutting-room floor; the dish on backroom schemes, negotiations, and brawls; and several previously unreported stories, Appetite for Self-Destruction is a riveting, informative, and highly entertaining read. It offers a broad perspective on the current state of Big Music, how it got into these dire straits, and where it's going from here -- and a cautionary tale for the digital age.

This Business of Music, 10th Edition (This Business of Music)

M. William Krasilovsky, Sidney Shemel, John M Gross, Jonathan Feinstein

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Billboard Books Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $12.88

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Business

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

New and somewhat improved 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This warhorse of a textbook still gives you the information you need when you need it. My one complaint is that it's still written in a very user unfriendly language. It just seems to me that this book can explain things with a little simpler English.

There are some good additions/changes to reflect current changes in the industry.

However, if you are a novice trying to get a feel for the machinations of the music industry, there are better books out there.

Editorial Review:

Now in its tenth edition, This Business of Music has been revised and completely updated to reflect the latest changes in the ever-evolving music business. Every chapter has been revised. An entirely new chapter has been added, asking and answering the question "Are there borders in cyberspace?" The answer is yes, and the book clearly and concisely explains what they are and how to maintain them. Commentary on recent legislation, a reader-friendly summary of the laws on copyright duration, and much more insightful analysis--plus fully updated lists of music organizations and important websites--make This Business of Music indispensable for musicians, agents, managers, marketers, music publishers and groups, colleges and universities, and everyone who wants to make music and make money.