Releasing An Independent Record 6th Ed.

If you're new to the record label busines then you might not know all the tips and trics that go into starting your own label A good guide cand mean the difference between succes and failure and you'll be far from failure when coosing this guide.It details all the intricate workings of the inner circle in the mussic industry and reveals all the secrets. When compared to "How To Make A Furtune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" By Ty Cohen the book looks fragile and incomplete, many of the features described in Ty Cohen's book are unexplored in this title.

i'm a big fan of "how-to" books that are on-point and concise.i bought this book in the late 1990's and it was extremely helpful in providing the nuts and bolts of releasing an independent record and/or starting an independent record label. gary himself says "don't buy it" (see his review)- lots of info is outdated. but it's still worth a flip through for anyone looking to release their first record.. the details on replication and promotion are still useful, as is the section on how to start a label.you can supplement the outdated info with the internet and cover your basics with this book.

Having read Gary Hustwit's How To Release... and then having read the reviews previously posted, I have to wonder if the other reviewer's had even read the same book! The writing in Hustwit's guide is cool, crisp, detached, eloquent, engaging, and informative! What more could you ask for in a book about releasing an indie record. Hustwit has more street cred in this field than all of the reviewers combined. Have they ever looked at the entire Hustwit ouevre? Perhaps the problem with the poor reviewers below wasn't with the quality of the book that they read but the quality of the record that they attempted to release. The only possible better source for Independent music guides would be Hustwit's equally poignant "Websites for Musicians" - together they embody a kind of "rememberance of things past of record release guides". I understand the German translation loses some of the earth tone quality of the prose. Unlike other guides for music Hustwit does not allow his book to, as Jean Baudrillard says, "Fall into the abyss of culture."

It only took me about 3 or 4 days to read this book. There are alot of good suggestions & pointers -- it seems like Mr. Huswit has been involved in the industry for a number of years. (I guess that saves me alot of trial and error). There are a ton of references here: Publishing, Distribution, Record Stores, Labels, etc. I will say that after I was finished, I wanted to search for more information on contracts, signing & releasing OTHER band's music. It got me motivated and ready to start, so I still give it a 5-star rating. Alan Houser, POETIC WAX RECORDS