Hacking Music

Until very recently, the path to success within the music industry was much clearer. The successful combination of song, producer, talent and potential would capture the attention of a record label...and their machinery, belief and investment would launch the artist into the realms of radio and touring.

Now...various and often conflicting options float in what have become cloudier waters. Successful YouTubers get record deals. Unsigned high school students produce songs in their bedrooms and hit the iTunes charts. Reality stars with large followings and no musical talent sell out arenas, and established successful musicians now compete for space on Snapchat with popular "tweens" that already have product endorsements.

Times have changed. Now artists have multiple paths toward building and sustaining a career. Hacking Music explores the options and provides a road map, compass, and tools with which they can map out their own careers and better understand the moving parts that make up the current music marketplace.



"Do you want to be the first in your own line of originals, or last in a long line of imitators? If Harvard had a course on the new music industry, this would be the textbook."

-Steve Thompson, producer/engineer for Guns n'Roses (Appetite for Destruction), John Lennon, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Korn, Wu-tang clan, Metallica



"An operating system for the way the music marketplace world actually works."

-Ted Goldthorpe, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Supervisor North American Publishing



"The music business is a series of winding roads, confusing intersections, and dead ends. This book provides a great roadmap."

-Glenn Peoples, music insights and analytics Pandora



"Hacking Music is a collection of signal in a world full of noise. For musicians, it is equal parts "Art of War" and "Rules for Radicals"

-Scott Welch Manager: Alanis Morrissette, LeAnn Rimes, Steve Perry, Collective Soul. Under Mr. Welch's direction, Alanis Morissette's debut album Jagged Little Pill was the largest selling debut album in history, with worldwide sales in excess of 34 million records

Hacking Music has the singular goal - empower the artist to make his or her own career by providing examples, insights and exercises within these vital areas:

Strategic Planning & Execution Developing "Supersongs" Team Building Platform & Content Development Lean Music Methodology Industry & Publishing Business Models Hacking Music is a book that you DO, not just getting you to a record deal, but getting you through a record deal. Hacking Music takes the artist "behind the curtain" and shares the concepts and systems used daily by industry professionals and authors John Pisciotta (Jetpack Artist Ventures) and Wade Sutton (Rocket to the Stars Artist Services) that will bring you back to this book again and again during your career.