How to Make It in the New Music Business (3rd Edition): Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician

As I said in my other review (For Donald Passman's All You Need To Know about the Music Business) these two books are the standard in the industry. Ignore all of the others for now. Ari is an artist, giving all of the tips on getting your stuff recognized so it can make you money - whereas D. Passman is an attorney, who tells you how to make sure you're not getting ripped off. Both books are widely taught in music business classes at the highest level, and Passman's book every music attorney anywhere has a copy of and read in law school. Get them both! For less than $100 you can have allllllll that knowledge.

Very enjoyable to read. Highly informative and important if you are pursuing a career related to music, especially more on the DIY side. Thanks Ari!

Best book of it's kind on Amazon!

“How to make it” is the dream encyclopedia!! But there’s something more critical…#1 - WOW! Every professional musician or one who aspires to be a professional needs this bible! It’s the perfect reference to create your personal roadmap to success. There are so many elements, from Touring to Social and mainstream media. From Streaming to insight on Music Royalties. It’s all here. (Ignore the NFT section, royalties don’t work anymore and aren’t honored, so this is out of date)#2 - What’s more important is YOU. The only possible way to “make it” is to believe in yourself, and apply yourself to your craft of writing, recording, playing, collaborating, posting, etc.. daily! Your time is your time. There are inspiring TikTok overnight success stories, but those are lottery picks. Consistently keep going, year after year. Keep striving not for success but for the love of your music craft. Then.. one day.. After a few years or dozens of years, you’ll hit YOUR GOLD record. Your place of great nirvana with your art. It may be in your small community volunteering or before the Foo Fighters take the stage at Coachella. No matter what, you’re living your dream. And this book is an great encyclopedia!NOTE: I have a friend who started a top music university. He pointed out how everyone is always looking to take money from musicians to educate them and help them succeed. While this book is good, it’s expensive, and you should do a lot of online research first.FURTHER: Ari is the expert at gaming musicians for money! His courses are very expensive. $1k+ and he’s built an industry on taking money from independent musicians at a premium level. I don’ think the value is worth his crazy prices. He has a great podcast, but don’t fall for dumping your cash in his self-enriching training. At 1/3 the cost, I would feel he is genuinely interested in helping musicians, but not with $1k plus courses. These are essentially ridiculous upsells from this book… as far as hard-working musicians are concerned!

My star rating is more like a 4 1/2 star than a 5 star. But as the other reviews said, it's a very expansive and great book overall for musicians. I'll leave the praise to the other reviewers, as I largely share their sentiments. But I have just a few points that this book needs to address a bit more:-- The book almost entirely looks down at office jobs. However, this same book expects us to also consider moving to a place like Los Angeles or NYC, which is very difficult to afford in our inflation-based housing market unless you DO have an office job. Not to mention the other expenses involved, such as resources, music staff (managers/lawyers) etc.-- The book also encourages unhealthy habits like working sixteen hours a day (Eminem once did this while juggling recording an album AND shooting a movie, and thought it was overwhelming. Additionally, shutting yourself in a room for that long won't let you write authentic lyrics that relate to others' personal lives) and living off the same piece of food (when your brain needs a healthy diet to even work that long).My point being, don't follow this book religiously and take everything at face value, but everything in the book is something to consider. There are several artists that have gone on to have very successful careers who took care of their bodies and had a good work-life balance. Don't let this book scare/overwhelm you, but of course, be prepared to work hard and make sacrifices! You've got this!

theres a long list of people who make it after 30....what about people after 40? 50? 60? not everyone gives up at 30...the author is 38 apparently....not aware that life goes on after 40 i'd suppose.

Useful tips to make it in the new music business as an independent artist.

This is by far, the best expansive and more importantly- RELEVANT music business book out there! The music industry is constantly changing and Ari has taken the time to map out all the latest changes and trends since the last book release about 3 years ago.From the very first chapter, it reminds you WHY music is a valid and legitimate career while logically and realistically encouraging you to follow your dream as a musician.This new edition of How to Make It In The New Music Business is a great option if you’re new to Ari’s work or even if you’ve read the 1st or 2nd editions. You’ll get so much out of this one book and the best part is that it reads so easily! He makes any technical terms easy to digest and understand.I can’t recommend this book enough for any musician looking to make it in this modern era of music!

As a 59 year old Canadian musician, I'm about to release my first album; and with my daughter nonetheless. We've formed a synth duo called Waveform Mountain.Biggest takeaway from Ari's book: it's all about our story...Knowing what is unique about your own musical story and promoting it is the key to marketing yourself.We're working on releasing an album, and Ari's book will be instrumental in guiding us to create a successful launch, and hopefully sync placement as well.You'll also learn about the difference between publishing and mechanical rights and how to collect all the money you are owed, as well you'll learn how to set up a successful tour and where to start. Plus there is so much more.Just get the book and consume it. You'll be better off for it.

Contains nothing new really, all the information in the book you can find easily elsewhere on the internet, and for free. ALso, there is a bigger problem with this and other books like it: It is a perfect blueprint to do it just like anybody else tries to do it. But, as Ari says himself very often: These are not the times to follow blueprints. I rather suggest to focus on the 80/20 rule with 80% focussing on your music, and becoming "so good they can't ignore you" - ONLY THEN step up your marketing game - with a near perfect product, not before. And no, Ari, the game hasn't change nearly as much as you're trying to pretend it did. No use in marketing a substandard product, create a hype and afterwards fall hard on your snout. Although that is and always has been possible, it's just not very clever, ore useful. Ignore the advice, try and find out what works for YOU and ONLY for you. And then sit back and let others try to copy what you did - and fail. This is how it really works in the creative industry, and has been since forever ;-)

For anyone looking to launch their career and navigate the music business this book is gold. Well researched and well written.

En mi opinión debería ser el libro de referencia de cualquier artista que pretenda tomarse el negocio musical en serio. Cubre todos los campos, desde como enfocar el tiktok y las redes sociales a como preparar una gira o registrar tu repertorio para no dejar ningún royalty sin cobrar . Altamente recomendable.

Ari lays it all out in this epic tome for beginning and established singer-songwriters, bands and music biz folks. It’s the best Ive ever read on the subject. Buy the latest version, as things change fast these days.