Midwest Edition
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This textbook was written for the 125 students in the Survey of Music Industry (MMP 100) class that I teach each semester at Ball State University, located in Muncie, Indiana. 95% of the students in the class take it to fulfill a general education requirement, the rest are preparing for careers in music production and telecommunications.
I have used a number of textbooks in this and other classes over the years here and at other institutions. Donald Passman’s All You Need to Know About the Music Business is a classic treatment of the traditional music business revolving around record contracts. David and Tim Baskerville’s Music Business Handbook and Career Guide brings the business forward in time, and in 2009 I created the ancillary material for its companion website. Richard Weissman’s book, Understanding the Music Business provides a good overview at a price that students appreciate. I switched to Bobby Owsinski’s Music 4.1 because of the good job he does dividing the business’s developments into stages along with the tips on how to use social media, which he covers in greater detail in his separate book, Social Media Promotion for Musicians. I’ve supplemented the textbooks with additional material from Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human, Ariel Hyatt’s Music Success in 9 Weeks, Clara Dweck’s Mindset, Angela Duckworth’s Grit, Jeff Goins’s The Art of Work, Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan’s The Indie Band Survival Guide, and Gabrielle Oettingen’s Rethinking Positive Thinking. These and other titles are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this volume. |
I came to Indiana after teaching at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for 11 years. It was easy to figure out there what we could be the world’s best at, since we were located in the heart of Cajun and zydeco country. I co-wrote a book on Creole Fiddle, co-produced a DVD of zydeco music, and was involved with my students in recording groups representing Southwest Louisiana’s unique musical culture. It took longer to discover my calling in Central Indiana. The manufacturing of glass jars and canning products by the Ball family had already moved to Colorado. Being the inspiration for the bad big-city opponents of the underdog heroes in the movie Hoosiers wasn’t something most people wanted to build on. The TV series Parks and Recreation has many connections with our town, but not all Hoosiers seem comfortable enough to chuckle at themselves, and production of that show had wrapped.
What continued to interest me was the legacy of being the site of sociological studies beginning in the 1920s in which Muncie’s identity was concealed by referring to it in reports as “Middletown”. Muncie was chosen by the researchers because it was identified as being representative of an average or typical American small city, and offered an opportunity to study “the interplay of a relatively constant…American stock and its changing environment.” While at first glance being statistically average might not be the best choice for a unique selling proposition, I’ve decided that Muncie’s niche in the music industry could be its “Hometown U.S.A.” heritage with its fingers lightly tapping the pulse of the nation. Our new motto has become “If we like you here, they’ll like you everywhere!” and we are ready to serve as your next test bed or focus group. Muncie is home to a good, well-equipped university that is centrally-located, one with the time, energy, and vision to champion the development of Midwest music, something that no one else is presently doing.
Visit the publisher's website to order print or ebook version online.
What continued to interest me was the legacy of being the site of sociological studies beginning in the 1920s in which Muncie’s identity was concealed by referring to it in reports as “Middletown”. Muncie was chosen by the researchers because it was identified as being representative of an average or typical American small city, and offered an opportunity to study “the interplay of a relatively constant…American stock and its changing environment.” While at first glance being statistically average might not be the best choice for a unique selling proposition, I’ve decided that Muncie’s niche in the music industry could be its “Hometown U.S.A.” heritage with its fingers lightly tapping the pulse of the nation. Our new motto has become “If we like you here, they’ll like you everywhere!” and we are ready to serve as your next test bed or focus group. Muncie is home to a good, well-equipped university that is centrally-located, one with the time, energy, and vision to champion the development of Midwest music, something that no one else is presently doing.
Visit the publisher's website to order print or ebook version online.