All You Need to Know About the Music Business: 10th Edition

Since you wouldn’t open a store without something to sell, before you start assembling a team, you want to be sure your music is ready for the big time.

If you’re more mainstream, such as hip-hop, pop, or country, this is a much tougher question. You can set up a killer Web presence,

Don’t take offense at this—“limited” can mean anything from a year to fifty years, but it’s going to be limited. In most other careers, you can expect to have a professional life of forty-years plus, but as an entertainer in the music business, this rarely happens.

Okay, here’s the secret: Many of the top managers have absolutely no written contracts with their artists. It’s all done on a handshake, and the only discussion is the percentage.

But if they dazzle you, be even more cautious—charming crooks are the most dangerous!

For one thing, if the lawyer is being paid by a record company or publisher for work on other clients, it’s human nature to think twice about how hard they want to beat them up and jeopardize a profitable relationship—especially for an artist who will pay them much less.

If you’re going to spend everything you make, then start spending money you don’t have, you’re going to end up broke. It’s that simple.

Finally, we come to Distribution. The major record companies’ records are all distributed by major distributors, which are gigantic distribution networks that are owned by the major labels’ parent companies. These distributors coordinate digital distribution and move physical records from manufacturing plants into the stores. They also report strea

I personally like young managers a lot. If they’re bright and motivated, I’ve seen their energy overcome the lack of experience and political clout with superb results. And to help you understand why, let me give you the Passman Treatise on Managers’ Careers. Managers’ careers go something like this: