A few years ago I downloaded the original “The Indie Band Survival Guide” out of curiosity and because the PDF was under a CC license. That version is still available for download. (A recent CC write up here. )

The book has been greatly expanded and updated and is now been officially published (Amazon link). I got a free copy because they mention ccMixter (thanks!) and because they wanted me to plug the book (I am such the influential big wig!!).

Fact is, this book is cool. Chapter 7 on music licensing is perhaps the best resource on selling music I’ve ever seen. A lot of the book is devoted to the ‘band’ angle (as pointed out in the book, yes, there is more than one meaning to “joint ownership”) but a producer or DJ could learn a lot from reading this thing. I sure did.

On the way to having an Open Music musician quit their day job I would think the things in this book are a given and having them all compiled in one place is definitely useful to say the least. Readers of this blog know a lot of the web stuff already. For example, Brad Sucks is featured predominantly throughout and can you blame them? (There are few things Brad gets wrong.) But a lot of the old school music biz stuff that still linger on is really important to know and these guys do a great job at explaining all of it.

It is a very timely book, that is, some percentage of the material will be stale in 6 months so it’s a little strange to have an actual bound book because the peak value of it is right now and can only diminish over time. Of course there’s a web site but I’m not sure it does the book justice.

Bottom line: these guys have done their homework, actually know what their talking about and know how to write so mere mortals can understand it.