At last, an entertainment attorney offers up the honest truth about becoming a successful recording artist. This book is packed with solid information geared toward anyone who wants to become a musician. It's a terrific primer for parents of kids who are clamoring for music lessons or permission to go to a college of music.The book is divvied up into manageable chapters: practicing, recording your first demo, creating a promo kit, finding a manager, playing a showcase, and much more. This is the first book in the Music Business Made Simple series. These easy-to-digest handbooks cover everything one needs to know about the music business. The second book in the series, Be Your Own Music Mogul: Launch an Independent Record Label will be published in Spring 2005.
Is this blue book more valuable than a business degree? Most people enter their professional careers not understanding how to grow a business. At times, this makes them feel lost, or worse, like a fraud pretending to know what they’re doing. It’s hard to be successful without a clear understanding of how business works. These 60 daily readings are crucial for any professional or business owner who wants to take their career to the next level. New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Donald Miller knows that business is more than just a good idea made profitable – it’s a system of unspoken rules, rarely taught by MBA schools. If you are attempting to profitably grow your business or career, you need elite business knowledge—knowledge that creates tangible value. Even if you had the time, access, or money to attend a Top 20 business school, you would still be missing the practical knowledge that propels the best and brightest forward. However, there is another way to achieve this insider skill development, which can both drastically improve your career earnings and the satisfaction of achieving your goals. Donald Miller learned how to rise to the top using the principles he shares in this book. He wrote Business Made Simple to teach others what it takes to grow your career and create a company that is healthy and profitable. These short, daily entries and accompanying videos will add enormous value to your business and the organization you work for. In this sixty-day guide, readers will be introduced to the nine areas where truly successful leaders and their businesses excel: Character: What kind of person succeeds in business? Leadership: How do you unite a team around a mission? Personal Productivity: How can you get more done in less time? Messaging: Why aren’t customers paying more attention? Marketing: How do I build a sales funnel? Business Strategy: How does a business really work? Execution: How can we get things done? Sales: How do I close more sales? Management: What does a good manager do? Business Made Simple is the must-have guide for anyone who feels lost or overwhelmed by the modern business climate, even if they attended business school. Learn what the most successful business leaders have known for years through the simple but effective secrets shared in these pages. Take things further: If you want to be worth more as a business professional, read each daily entry and follow along with the free videos that will be sent to you after you buy the book.
New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller shares the plan that led him to turn his life around. This actionable guide will teach you how to do the same through journaling prompts and goal-planning exercises. There are four characters in every story: The victim, the villain, the hero, and the guide. These four characters live inside us. If we play the victim, we’re doomed to fail. If we play the villain, we will not create genuine bonds. But if we play the hero or guide, our lives will flourish. The hard part is being self-aware enough to know which character we are playing. In this book, bestselling author Donald Miller uses his own experiences to help you recognize if the character you are currently surfacing is helping you experience a life of meaning. He breaks down the transformational, yet practical, plan that took him from slowly giving up to rapidly gaining a new perspective of his own life’s beauty and meaning, igniting his motivation, passion, and productivity, so you can do the same. In Hero on a Mission, Donald’s lessons will teach you how to: Discover when you are playing the victim and villain. Create a simple life plan that will bring clarity and meaning to your goals ahead. Take control of your life by choosing to be the hero in your story. Cultivate a sense of creativity about what your life can be. Move beyond just being productive to experiencing a deep sense of meaning. Donald will help you identify the many chances you have of being the hero in your life, and the times when you are falling into the trap of becoming the victim. Hero on a Mission will guide you in developing a unique plan that will speak to the challenges you currently face so you can find the fulfillment you have been searching for in your life and work.
Enhance your chance for success as a recording artist by following the real-world advice found within the pages of the book. Step-by-step suggestions for: Setting career goals Developing your songs and stage presence Recording your first demo and full-length album Designing your promotional materials Knowing where to hire an attorney, manager, booking agent, and producer And, of course, getting a record deal! Success depends on talent, hard work, and a little luck. This handbook will help you prepare and increase you opportunities in the music business.
The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs that Sell unveils the secrets to climbing the charts and reaching success in today’s ultracompetitive music industry. Eric Beall supplies his firsthand knowledge of today’s record business, as well as interviews with successful writers, producers, and executives from the worlds of pop, hip-hop, country, adult contemporary, and R&B. The result: a proven approach to constructing songs that open doors, create careers, and communicate to listeners around the world. Key areas explored include: •How does a song become a hit? •What makes a song a single? •Is there a formula for creating a hit? Fun and practical exercises provide opportunities to hone skills and expose specific talents, helping songwriters combine their unique voices to the demands of the commercial marketplace. Filled with fresh ideas that will spark beginners and veterans alike, this book will lead the way toward the industry’s ultimate challenge: the creation of that chart-topping hit song.
An indispensable step-by-step guide to releasing your own records and beginning a working independent label. Since the boom of homemade records and independently-minded musicians in the 1980s, the alternative music industry has grown from strength to strength, driven by a policy that privileges the music itself over the aggressive marketing and branding strategies of the majors. You can retain all control and rights to the music you release, allowing you to showcase and sell the music that you believe should be heard. There has never been a better time to begin a label for yourself, and this comprehensive title shows you exactly how it's done, including: Devising a business plan Finding and choosing talent Creating and manufacturing records themselves All aspects of promotion and marketing Distribution and radio Get your company organised and get those records out there right now with the help and advice of this informative guide.
The Wall Street Journal Bestseller For so many entrepreneurs, running a small business ended up looking different than they imagined. They’re stressed, discouraged, and not confident in their plan for growth. In How to Grow Your Small Business, Donald Miller gives entrepreneurs a 6-step plan to grow their businesses so they produce dependable, predictable results. Using the exact steps you’ll learn in this book, Donald Miller grew his small business from four employees working out of a basement to a 15 million dollar operation, increasing revenue sixfold in just six years. As Miller grew his own business from the ground up, he realized nobody had put together a simple, step-by-step playbook for growing a business. That book didn’t exist. Until now. In this book, you’ll learn the 6 steps to grow a successful small business and create a playbook to implement them- your Flight Plan. When you have a completed Flight Plan in hand, you can stop drowning in the details and spend more time doing the things you truly love- in your business and your life. In How to Grow Your Small Business, you’ll learn how to: Cast a vision for your company that includes three economic priorities Clarify your marketing message Install a sales framework that makes your customers the hero Optimize your product offering Run a management and productivity playbook that aligns your entire team. Use 5 checking accounts to manage your cash flow If you’re ready to experience freedom, flexibility, and growth for your business, How to Grow Your Small Business is the book you’ve been waiting for.
Everything you need to know about improvising in any style, composing your own songs, and jamming. For all instruments including voice, and for beginners or experienced players, this easy theory book covers scales and chord structures for folk, blues, rock, country and jazz.
More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions. If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you: The seven universal story points all humans respond to; The real reason customers make purchases; How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.
No one understands the music industry--from the technology, to the legalities, to the new industry practices--better than veteran music lawyer Donald Passman. In this completely revised and updated seventh edition of All You Need To Know About the Music Business, which the Los Angeles Times called “the industry bible” and which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, Passman offers executives and artists, experts and novices alike the essential information they need not only to survive in these volatile and exciting times, but also to thrive. Drawing on his unique, up-to-the-minute experience as one of the most trusted advisors in the business, Passman offers advice concerning: - The Copyright Royalty Board’s latest decisions regarding online transmissions. - The developing new customs concerning new technologies such as streaming on demand, ringtones, and digital downloads. Passman also gives guidance on other fundamental issues such as 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 copyright law. - Maximize concert touring and merchandising deals. Almost everyone in the music business, from musicians and songwriters to entertainment lawyers and record company executives, are scrambling to sort out what is going to happen next, and Passman is right in the thick of these changes. Here is a book for anyone interested in a music career: a comprehensive and crucial guide to making it in one of the world’s most dynamic industries.
