The Music Business for Music Creators Industry Mechanics for Contemporary Creators

The Music Business for Music Creators is a roadmap to understanding the traditional and emerging income streams that define the modern music industry. It presents the key concepts and principles that underpin the business, with an emphasis on educating and empowering the next generation of music creators to build a career from their creative pursuits.

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the mechanics of the music business, from music publishing, marketing and contract negotiation to licensing, streaming and performing. This accessible guide is written with music creators in mind and features case studies, profiles and interviews with established professionals, as well as a glossary of key terms to empower the reader in their understanding of the industry, alongside a number of useful accompanying digital resources.

This book is core reading for students of music business and music creation in contemporary music education, and an essential resource for those on music, music production and music performance courses, as well as aspiring and early career professionals.

Part 1: Song and Recording Copyrights 1. Understanding Copyright 2. What are Master Rights? 3. Song Splits Part 2: Music Industry Structures and Roles 4. What is Music Publishing? 5. The Role of a Record Company 6. Artist and Labels Services 7. What Do Artists Managers Do? 8. What Do Music Lawyers do? 9. What Do Accountants Do? 10. Understanding the Live Sector Part 3: Being a Recording Artist 11. Artist Development: The Rarely Spoken Truths of Self Discovery 12. Being in a Band 13. The Art of Negotiation 14. Rights Management and Collection Societies 15. Song and Recording Registration Part 4: Releasing Music 16. Releasing Music without a Record Company 17. Ten Key Steps When Releasing Music 18. Writing a Press Release 19. Understanding Digital Distribution 20. Releasing Cover Songs and Remixes 21. Costing and Budgeting for Artists Releasing Music 22. Understanding Growth on Streaming Platforms 23. The Algorithmic Scaffold of Spotify and its Playlists 24. Pitching For Playlists 25. Sonic Virality: When the Listeners Speak 26. Ten Tips for Gaining Growth on Audio Streaming Platforms 27. Sampling and Being Sampled: The Culture of Permission Part 5: An Exploration of Income Streams for Music Creators 28. Paths of Profit for Music Creators 29. Working For Hire 30. The Self-Recording Musician 31. The Sync Business 32. Artist Merchandise 33. Funding Opportunities 34. A Guide to Building a Portfolio Career: Understanding the Gig Economy 35. Reaching out to Music Industry Professionals 36. Songwriters Pitching Songs to Recording Artists 37. Expected Standards of Song Presentation 38. Production Music and Media Composers 39. The Importance of Metadata Part 6: The Future of The Business 40. The Global Marketplace 41. Artificial Intelligence in Creativity and Analytics 42. Mental Health Awareness: A Creators’ Understanding of Self-Care 43. Beyond The Horizon: Exploring the Future of the Music Business 44. Your Future

Jonny Amos is a UK-based music industry professional with chart success in Europe and Asia as a songwriter and an array of credits on major and independent labels as a producer. Jonny is also a former recording artist who has toured extensively and can thus explain key aspects of the music business through the lens of a music creator. He is also the creative director of UK-based production company The SongLab Ltd, the host of The Music Business Buddy podcast and an award-winning senior lecturer in both music creation and music business at BIMM Institute Birmingham (UK), BIMM University.