Resources
A Curated List of NYC3’s Favorites
Podcasts
A highly-curated weekly snapshot of the digital music business info you need to know - now as a weekly podcast! Hosted by YMC creator and curator Jay Gilbert, along with Mike Etchart, former host of the syndicated Sound & Vision Radio program . Every Monday Jay and Mike break down the important music news to keep you up to date and informed on the latest trends in the digital music world!
How to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams is the podcast version of Emily White's #1 Amazon best-selling book. White brings each chapter of the book to life with handpicked world-class guests including Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, Imogen Heap, Kam Franklin of The Suffers, Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman, legendary attorney Donald S. Passman, Patrick Sansone of Wilco, and more.
Rock & Roll High School
Rock and Roll High School is an interview series that spotlights some of the most important figures in the history of contemporary music. Interviews by Pete Ganbarg, President of A&R at Atlantic Records.
Music Business Worldwide prides itself on our in-depth and revelatory interviews with business leaders – and our podcast is no different.
If you want to find out what the brightest and best brains in the music industry are thinking, these downloadable audio discussions are a perfect complement to your commute.
The Cyber PR Music Podcast is a Combination of 2 Things:
1. Presenting Ariel’s articles, parts of her books and observations in short form (approx 15 minutes each episode).
2. Interviews with people furthering the conversation about marketing and PR in the music business.
Every week, we sit down with an acclaimed and venerable songwriter to intimately discuss what happens behind closed doors in the music industry. There are millions of writers, thousands of artists and only the top 40 songs per genre at a time. This podcast is about the people who make them.
Speed of Sound
Speed of Sound is the podcast that breaks down the stories behind the pop songs - and sounds - that topped the charts and shaped the soundtrack of generations. Hosted by Steve Greenberg, a multi-Grammy Award winning record producer and music obsessive, Speed of Sound is your all-access pass to music's biggest moments from sock hops to hip hop to k-pop; you won't want to miss a beat.
Books
All You Need to Know About the Music Business by veteran music lawyer Don Passman—dubbed “the industry bible” by the Los Angeles Times—is now updated to address the biggest transformation of the music industry yet: streaming.
For more than twenty-five years, All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been universally regarded as the definitive guide to the music industry. Now in its tenth edition, Donald Passman leads novices and experts alike through what has been the most profound change in the music business since the days of wax cylinders and piano rolls. For the first time in history, music is no longer monetized by selling something—it’s monetized by how many times listeners stream a song. And that completely changes the ecosystem of the business, as Passman explains in detail.
Since 2007, Ariel has been music marketing writing books to guide musicians through the confounding worlds of social media, marketing and crowdfunding. Her books have landed on Musicians Top 10 lists on Hypebot and CROWDSTART was voted one of the “9 Must Read Crowdfunding Books for Entrepreneurs and Investors” by Crowd 101 and it went to #1 in the music, entrepreneurship, and investing categories.
Making Music Make Money will educate songwriters, as well as aspiring music business entrepreneurs in the basics of becoming an effective independent music publisher. Topics include a discussion of the various roles a publisher plays in the music business: collection, administration, protection, exploitation and evaluation. A major emphasis is placed on the exploitation process, and the importance of creating a sound business model for a new publishing venture. Eric Beall is a Creative Director for Zomba Music Publishing, as well as a former songwriter and record producer. In his role at Zomba, Eric has signed and developed top writers including Steve Diamond, KNS Productions, and Riprock & Alex G. and has coordinated and directed Zomba writers in the development of material for Jive Records pop superstars like Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears and Aaron Carter. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music.
The music business is one of the most complex, infamous, and influential systems on Earth! If you create, develop, or interact with musical content in any way, you are one of its participants. How The Music Business Works has been written to explain how all of the moving parts of this industry work together—from record label deals to public performance licenses, copyright registration to the Music Modernization Act, the Harry Fox Agency to SoundExchange. Our goal is to compile and share the most exhaustive guide on the subject of music business that exists. The Amazon Kindle version of this book serves as an extension of all guides located on the Learn tab of Exploration's website. Proceeds from sales of How The Music Business Works go to charity.
Since the publication of the first edition in 2005, The Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing has emerged as the premier guide to the subject. With sufficient depth to be used as a text at major college music industry programs including UCLA, NYU and Northeastern, the book also remains simple and clear enough for the lay songwriter to gain a crucial understanding of musical copyrights and licensing basics.
Articles + Publications
Exploration: Learn
A comprehensive list of resources that breaks down every aspect of the music industry from pages on “What is a Songwriter?” to “What is a Digital Download?”
Billboard
Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
Music Business Worldwide
Music Business Worldwide (MBW) is the leading information service for the global music industry. Established in 2015, MBW provides news, insight and jobs to the worldwide business. Over 300,000 unique users visit the MBW site each month – and shared over 7 million page views between them in 2019.
Trapital
From Dan Runcie, Trapital has been breaking down and elevating Hip-Hop culture since its inception in 2018. Trapital’s memos, essays, and podcasts are followed by the leading executives in music, media, tech, and more.
Variety Magazine
Variety is the most authoritative and trusted source of entertainment business news. For 115 years, influential producers, executives and talent in entertainment have turned to Variety for expert film, TV, digital, music, and theater business analysis and insights.
USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative is the leading think tank in the world studying diversity and inclusion in entertainment through original research and sponsored projects. Beyond research, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative develops targeted, research-based solutions to tackle inequality.
2021: Inclusion in the Music Business: Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across Executives, Artists & Talent Teams - Their first report to examine the inclusion profile of the executive ranks across six categories of the music industry, artist race/ethnicity, and that of managers, agents, and publicists.
2021: Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Their fourth annual report on gender and race/ethnicity across 900 popular songs from 2012 to 2020 and 9 years of Grammy nominations in select categories. View previous reports:
Inclusion in the Recording Studio? (2019) -includes an analysis of qualitative interviews with 75 female songwriters and producers.
2019: No Country for Female Artists - A research brief examining gender inclusion across the Year-End Billboard Hot Country charts from 2014 to 2018, and nominations for the last five years in four categories at the Academy of Country Music Awards.