Drum Books for Entertainment and for the Improvement of Your Music Business Skills

The following list of books are those that I personally recommend as great entertainment or to help you build a viable business of out your drumming and music skills. Check 'em out at your nearest library or click the links below to purchase them online from Amazon.com. Your purchase helps support Tiger Bill's DrumBeat Website to assure that it remains the best, largest, and most important of all - Free - online drum and percussion resource!

Tiger Bill's Pick of the World's Best Drum Books for Fun, Entertainment, and for Learning the Business End of Music and Drumming

All You Need to Know About the Music Business

An entertainment lawyer whose clients include many from the top of the music charts, Passman has written a book that sets out to give musicians, performers, and songwriters the tools to hire advisers, market their careers, protect their creative works, and generally cope with a complex industry in a state of flux. Passman explains boilerplate language, the complexities of royalties and advances, and label and distribution deals; a section on record deals begins with an overview of the business and works through all the steps. The "Adventures in Cyberspace" chapter is a helpful summary of the way CD-ROMs and the Internet are affecting the business. Included here is information on recent legislation and a look at how digitizing music delivery will continue to change things. Packed with illustrations, sample calculations, and definitions, All You Need To Know is humorous and accessible enough for those who just want to understand the business while being detailed and documented enough for those who make a living from it. Hardvover by Donald S Passman.

Drummin' Men - The Heatrbeat of Jazz: The Swing Years

Biographies and interviews of the great swing era drummers including Chick Webb, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Davey Tough, Ray McKinley, Big Sid Catlett, and more. I recommend it for all drummers, no matter what style you play. Hardcover by Burt Korall.

The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital Technologies

New technologies are revolutionizing the music industry. While peer-to-peer file sharing and CD burning are devastating album sales, they are also creating new opportunities to distribute and sell music. This up-to-date guide focuses on these opportunities as well as new business and digital delivery models, and explains how aspiring musicians, established recording artists, independent labels, and entrepreneurs can all take advantage of the new digital technologies. The book includes a comprehensive discussion of new laws and business practices that apply to online music distribution along with a detailed list of vendors and services. The CD features a seminar on the future of the music business, links to reference websites, interviews with key players in the new music business, and links to webpages updating the book so that it will never be out of date! Paperback by Steve Gordon.

Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew

Although he was the most recorded musician in musical history, only musicians have ever heard of him. In the sixties and seventies Blaine recorded with Elvis, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Neil Diamond, Sinatra and many others. Amusing and thoroughly entertaining. Paperback by Hal Blaine and David Goggin.

Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business

More than a decade after it was written, this book is still relevant. A must-read for anyone involved in the music business. It's a gripping, true account of the greed and corruption at the top. Paperback by Fredric Dannen.

How To Be a Working Musician: A Practical Guide to Earning Money in the Music Business

Written for both novices and professionals, this invaluable handbook provides solid, practical career advice to anyone wanting to earn money as a working musician. Practical guidance on performing in bars and clubs; celebrations and business functions; providing accompaniment in theaters and cabarets; working at recording sessions; and composing for TV and radio advertisement is all provided based on the author's professional experience as an instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer. Paperback by Mike Levine.

I Hate The Man Who Runs This Bar! - The Survival Guide for Real Musicians

If you've ever experienced the dark side of the business, like being stiffed by a club owner or double booked by a promoter (and who hasn't?), this book will make you feel better. It won't prevent those things from happening again, but it will help you deal with them when they do. Extremely entertaining and educational. I highly recommend it for every musician. Paperback by Eugene Chadbourne.

Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer

If you've ever romanticized about life on the road, you must never have been on the road. And after reading this book, you may never want to go! An entertaining, realistic account by Mike Lankford, a less than famous drummer. Hardcover by Mike Lankford.

Music Business Handbook and Career Guide

This Eighth Edition of the familiar Baskerville opus has been updated with two new chapters, 'Starting Your Own Business' and 'The Digital Age.' The latter covers downloading, digital hardware, and copyright initiatives and the former covers the all-important how-tos of working for yourself. This book covers it all and is a must-read for anyone involved in the music business. Hardcover by David Baskerville.

The Musician's Handbook: A Practical Guide to Understanding the Music Business

FINALLY, a book written by a musician for musicians--from an author who has actually been in the trenches himself—from rehearsal studios to label signings, from recording studios to concert stages. Get the STRAIGHT FACTS about the music industry--NOT THE FAIRY TALES. In The Musician’s Handbook, veteran musician Bobby Borg reveals over 35 inspirational and proactive strategies for pursuing a successful career in the music industry. Other chapters of this indispensable primer provide comprehensive coverage of the four types of business relationships, the five key people a musician needs to succeed and the four major sources of music revenue.

The Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing

Randall Wixon, who came up through the ranks of music publishers to become the largest independent in the business, provides us with an easy how-to guide to the financial side of the Music Business. Must reading for anybody invested in songs, lyrics, or recordings. Foreword by Tom Petty. Hardcover by Randall D Wixen.

The Self-Promoting Musician

I own the original edition, written in 2000, but this updated second 2008 edition includes all of the latest information to help you become the best. It will teach you how to take charge of your musical career with crucial do-it-yourself strategies. Filled with empowering resources and tips for self-managed musicians, including: * How to write a business plan, create press kits, sharpen your business chops * Using the Internet to promote your music * How to customize your demos for maximum exposure * Secrets to getting your music played on the radio * 12 things you can do to get the most out of every gig * The most comprehensive musician's resource list on the planet, updated continually online! I highly recommend it! Paperback by Peter Spellman.

Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music (Music in American Life)

He is known as 'El Rey' - the king - and has come to epitomize the Latin experience in music, not just to Latinos throughout the United States and Latin America but to a worldwide audience of all backgrounds. "Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music" is the first in-depth historical, musical, and cultural look at the career and the influence of this giant of Latin music. In this seminal work, Steven Loza brings the man and his music vividly to life through exclusive interviews with Puente and a number of his close associates, including Hilton Ruiz, Ray Santos, Jerry Gonzlez, Poncho Sanchez, and Joe Conzo, as well as music journalist Max Salazar and former DJ/producer Chico Sesma. Loza shows how Puente's music evolved in tandem with the crystallization of Latin music into its current compelling mix of Afro-Cuban music, salsa, and Latin jazz.Tracing Puente's innovations as a drummer and a bandleader, Loza defines his influence over the course of half a century on Latin music as well as on other musicians and musical genres. Loza also delineates the social and cultural history of Latin music, exploring questions of nationalism and ethnic expression, the play between musical creation and commercial competition, and the politics of so-called multiculturalism as they bear on Latin music and musicians. The book includes detailed musical analyses and a discography of more than a hundred recordings. Celebrating a dynamic performer and a genre that is deeply rooted in America's rich ethnic diversity, "Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music" traces a significant current in twentieth-century culture and reveals all the vibrancy and color of a consummate artist's life, work, and world. Paperback written by Steven Loza.

Traps the Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich

Buddy's parents were performers in vaudeville and they traveled all over the country. Buddy liked to put people on, saying that he never practiced or had a lesson. The truth was, Buddy got his lessons from the greatest percussionists of the day and he practiced his butt off. I highly recommend this book for drummers of ages and all musical styles. Paperback - Written by Buddy Rich's friend and fellow musical genius: Mel Torme.

What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business: The Myths, Secrets, Lies (& a Few Truths)

What They'll Never Tell You about the Music Business reveals what most savvy music executives already know-and hope that readers never find out! This insider guide discloses the hidden dynamics and often unfortunate consequences of what really happens when a deal is prepared, contracts are signed, and promises are made-and alerts musicians, attorneys, songwriters, and anyone else interested in the music business to the potent dangers lurking beneath the surface of this incredibly competitive industry. Twenty chapters cover virtually every aspect of the music industry, including recording agreements, record royalties, artistic management, music publishing, music marketing and promotion, merchandising, copyright infringement, and the international music business scene. What's more, the information in this invaluable reference is all explained clearly and concisely with no legal jargon. For anyone involved in the music business, here is your source of inside information written by an attorney specializing in entertainment and copyright lawwho has represented clients including ABBA, Pat Benatar, The Cars, Miles Davis, The Irish Tenors, Barry Manilow, Simon & Garfunkel, and others. Hardcover by Peter M. Thall.