See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/283833279

The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business

Article · October 2015

DOI: 10.1080/19401159.2015.1094919

CITATIONS READS
0 2,575

1 author:

Courtney Blankenship
Western Illinois University
3 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Courtney Blankenship on 25 August 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business
LOREN WEISMAN
Texas: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2014
ISBN 978-1-60832-578-8
427 pp., $19.95 (paperback)
As the recording industry is continually evolving and the marketplace is flooded with
musicians, the ones who are successful must learn the business behind the music in order
to be successful. This is the premise behind Loren Weisman’s The Artist’s Guide to
Success in the Music Business. Weisman balances practical wisdom regarding developing
music business plans and product branding against innate personality traits such as honor
and drive.
With 20 years of experience as a session and touring musician (drummer), producer,
consultant and author, Weisman has been in the trenches for decades, while keeping his
ear to the ground for tremors of change regarding revenue streams and search engine
optimization. He delivers a brutally honest message encouraging musicians to possess a
honed sense of skepticism and learn how to set achievable goals in a cutthroat business.
The book is aimed at musicians – but many an entrepreneur could benefit from his
chapters on branding, marketing, fundraising and investors. College students looking to
get into the industry as musicians or business managers themselves will find his writing
very accessible.
His volume is composed of 11 chapters with titles such as “Managing, Performing, and
Booking Gigs,” “Your Band is the Brand,” and “In the Recording Studio.” The author’s
strengths lie in his practical knowledge. Musicians will value his techniques about
refining songs prior to recording, getting gigs, developing brands as well as internet
marketing, and soliciting investors. Weisman writes “you want to make sure everything
you post and put online is converting to sales, new fans, and profit” (326). He forces
musicians to look at the pragmatic side of their craft and to realize the breadth of physical
and digital products available to them if they are willing to take the time to develop a
variety of mixes per song to maximize income potential. The amount of information he
recommends for inclusion in stage layouts, input lists related to technical needs, and
preproduction lists in the studio are vast. The reader quickly learns the author is
extremely thorough, most likely due to his own trials as a musician and in more recent
years as a producer and consultant to musicians.
Professional musicians may find his writing condescending at times when he discusses
items such as stage etiquette and interpersonal skills. However, the tone is on point for
students and younger musicians.
A real strength of Weisman’s book are the main elements (there are no less than 20) he
provides in creating a music business plan. His template clearly demonstrates how
important each of the aspects are as a musician considers their career. He drives home the
point that the plan should be the first “product” for any successful musician and is the
only avenue to woo potential investors. He also emphasizes acquiring as much
knowledge as possible and sheds light on this reality in the business: “For every task that
you don’t want to do, there are others out there willing to do it for you. But they are
going to make sure they not only get paid for it but also have a percentage of anything
you make” (281). Two aspects of the music business plan, marketing and promotion, are
a particular specialty of the author. The information on search engine optimization,
google analytics, and facebook reporting is some of the most valuable insight provided. If
there is one singular bit of information gleaned from this volume it is the information
provided on budgets, and that artists with unrealistic or non-existent budgets will fail.
Weisman describes one of the common funding conundrums of musicians: “If you record
the greatest album in the world, spending a fortune on the studio, the producer, the
overdubs, and the mix, but leave no funds to release, market, and promote the album,
how will people find it?” (259).
The lack of information on copyright law is a weakness of this volume. On this topic
Weisman chooses to direct the reader elsewhere, and the facts he does provide are murky.
He redeems himself somewhat with good advice regarding sampling and that musicians
should make their own music rather than sampling others because of legal/financial
advantages of owning 100% of the copyright. Readers may feel frustrated by the lack of
specific details provided on break-even analyses and ROI (return on investment) for
investors, elements of the business plan. In part this financial piece, as all of the others,
must be aligned to an artist’s specific needs, which he mentions, as both a reality and
explanation for his lack of details. Readers cannot fault Weisman too much as he is
completely honest and transparent about his work as a consultant and that business plans
are one of his “most popular services” and he admits to being allowed “a shameless plug”
(173).
In terms of a student response to the volume, I used The Artist’s Guide to Success in the
Music Business last semester for my Artist Development course as part of a music
business curriculum in a School of Music. The response from students was
overwhelmingly positive and the real application assignments based on chapter
information allowed students to digest and then employ what they learned for themselves
or other musicians. Here is the sample assignment related to branding:
This project consists of a full biography for an artist – you must create the entire thing!
This must be original, you may use yourself, a friend/acquaintance musician/band who
is/are trying to create awareness.
Read Chapter 9 in your text, The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business
focusing on pages 287-306.
Your finished Project will consist of:
1) Tagline – A phrase
2) One-Liner – A sentence
3) Short Bio – Start the Short bio with your one-liner and conclude with your tagline
4) Medium Bio – Dig deeper about your artist, influences and include a confident quote
that may be used by writers in reviews.
 5) Full Bio – a third paragraph which adds depth to the entire bio, provides additional
information on the music, the artist, hobbies, and elements outside of the music and
further establishes a connection with the reader.
Remember:
Short Bios are no shorter than 60 words and reach a maximum of about 85 words.
Example from the text: http://michaelmcfarlandmusic.com/biography/
In conclusion, this volume is a well-thought guidebook for musicians and music
industry professionals. The author possesses insight and practical knowledge and delivers
it with no nonsense writing backed up with interesting stories and online links to
examples illustrating his points. Weisman is well aware of the many facets of the industry
and does not proclaim to deliver an all-inclusive guidebook; in his introduction he
humbly admits his book just “scratches the surface” in terms of the music business.
However, I strongly believe The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business would
be a very valuable addition to any library collection of teachers of musicians and music
business students in higher education.

COURTNEY C. BLANKENSHIP
Western Illinois University
2015 Courtney C. Blankenship

View publication stats