cool book: appetite for self-destruction

I have been reading Appetite for Self-Destruction – the Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age and it’s both a well-written and fascinating tale of the rise and fall of the record industry over the past 30 years.

cool book: groundswell

If you are interested in social media marketing and social networking (and to be honest, you can’t afford NOT to be), here’s a great new book: Groundswell – winning in a world transformed by social technologies. While the book is not focused on musicians, it gives an excellent overview of the subject matter as well as provides an in-depth study of how to structure your own social media and technology strategy.

cool book: the art of the start

Many musicians are also entrepreneurs, and all entrepreneurs (and most musicians) should read Guy Kawasaki’s brilliant book The Art of the Start. One of the central questions is brilliant in its simplicity: how do you turn ideas into action? That question is particularly important for artistic music types (I am one, so I am speaking mostly to myself here!). However, the book is excellent for anyone who is even remotely interested in starting a new initiative – whether it’s related to music or not.

cool book: music success in nine weeks

Music Success in Nine Weeks is an amazing, practical, and inspirational book by Ariel Hyatt – and it is worth every penny you spend on it.

cool tool for websites: the red fez

We’re redesigning our website at the moment, so most of my reading material kind of centers around that topic. The Big Red Fez by Seth Godin (yes, another Seth Godin book) is one of the current ones I am reading. It’s about having bananas on each page of your site. And if you don’t know what that means, and your band has a website, you should get this book. It’s worth reading, and it’s a quick read.

cool book: purple cow

Love Seth Godin, and love this book, Purple Cow. About being remarkable in business. Or music, in this case.

cool book: making music make money

Making Music Make Money is the best book on music publishing I have read. And I have read quite a few. Music publishing can seem complicated – especially with new technologies emerging seemingly weekly – and Eric Beall does a fantastic job explaining and categorizing. This is a book everyone who has ever written music should read.

cool book: good to great

I am reading Good to Great for a class I am taking. Excellent book. Very applicable for the music business.

cool book: the new rules of marketing & pr

I have been doing some research on using social networking sites for marketing and pr for our band, and I just came upon an excellent book: The New Rules of Marketing & PR.What I like most about this book is that is actually goes into some depth and detail of marketing research and strategies, and does more than just explain how to transform a personal MySpace site into a music one (which I have found a lot of publications do).

cool book: the great good place

Another great book – not directly music-related, but very relevant IMHO: The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. In a nutshell, the book talks about the history and function of “the third place” – public gathering places that encourage and foster community. Cafes and coffee shops are prime examples (the bar in Cheers, the coffee shop in Friends), and music can play a very active role in the community life of both.Worth reading: The Great Good Place.