Negotiating Guide Book Review

The Only Negotiating Guide You’ll Ever Need, Revised and Updated by Peter B. Stark and Jane Flaherty is different tactics in negotiations.  I haven’t read enough negotiating books to say this is the only negotiating book you’ll ever need, but I will say this book is to the point in explaining different tactics in a very simplistic and easy manner.  This is an awesome book for high school students who are just graduating.  My favorite chapter is how to negotiate a pay raise. 

The first half of the book deals more with the concepts and psychology behind the art of negotiating. It even has a couple of self-assessment tests to take to deter what your skill level is in negotiating. 

The strongest part of the book is the second half.  They go into detail on 101 tactics for successful negotiating. For example, one tactic called The Trial Balloon is finding out how firm your counterpart is on the key issues is often helpful in negotiation. You can get some information by sending up a Trial Balloon and watching your counterpart’s reaction. This tactic may give you a better understanding of what to expect when you get down to doing final negotiation. Then they provide an “example” of The Trial Balloon. For example, A home seller is asking $250,000 for her house. The buyer’s agent presents a cash offer of $230,000 with a thirty-day escrow.  Then they follow the example with an example “Counter.” In this counter, they suggest using the Wow! You’ve Got To Be Kidding! Tactic. A second effective counter could be the response That’s Not Good Enough. A third possible counter could be to support the $250,000 asking price with Facts and Statistics citing the selling price for comparable homes in the neighborhood.

It is always good to read books such as this one especially if you in communication, marketing and sales position.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Book Review: What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business by Peter M. Thall

 

I got my hands on Peter M.  Thall’s book What They’ll Never Tell You About the Music Business, a great resource for musicians, songwriters, producers, managers, industry executives, attorneys, investors, and accountants. Thall has practiced law for more than 40 years and has represented many of the world's greatest artists, from Barry Manilow to ABBA and companies such as Gucci, EXPRESS, and Victoria's Secret for their music needs. 

Lately, with my YouTube channel and starting up a music network, I was really excited to get my hands on this book. Plus working in the entertainment business such as film, you usually run into dealing with music. 

            Some of the topics What They’ll Never Tell You About the Music Business covers include how royalties, copyrights, and agreements work. It explains a variety of positions such as investors, personal manager, record company, and producer.  Basically, Thall’s book gives advice on how to not get screwed.

Some of the things I learned are: 

“Corporations are often established to provide the services of a creative person to a user of talent. This practice permits flexibility within the tax laws drawing unwanted attention from the IRS. “

“Sometimes the negotiations on a project go on so long that it is appropriate to ask that a start up advance (customarily 50% of the total producer’s advance against royalties) be paid to the producer even though the paperwork is not complete.  The producer should not be penalized for this uncertainty. (p.133).”

“Customarily, the producer will receive a pro rata share of the total royalty, depending on how many tracks are produced in relation to the total number of tracks on the album. If the number of tracks to be produced is indefinite at the time of negotiation, the producer’s agreement (or deal memo) can take into account the uncertainty by including a series of contingency provisions, reducing the total royalty base on which the producer’s royalty is calculated by , say 5% for each reduction in the producer’s contribution by one track. “

Peter M. Thall

“Customarily, producers are expected to warrant to the artist and the artist’s record company that they will not, for a period of from two to five years after the completion of their production services, produce or coproduce a master recording for any other artist or record company that embodies any musical composition they have just produced. (135). “

“Any contract that involves inventory has to come to terms with what happens when the term of the agreement is over. In the area of tour and retail merchandising, the artist and the artist’s representatives have to ensure that the merchandiser does not manufacture or authorize the manufacture of goods—at any time, let alone toward the end of the contract term—in excess of approximate market demand. (195)”

 "When it comes to Artist Audits and the Record Company “After the record has been produced and releases, and the costs of and returns on its active life are in, the auditor enters the game to determine if the record company has accounted for and paid the artist what the artist was entitled to pursuant to his or her agreement with the record company. 199”

“The goal of ‘success’ is never mentioned in the record contract itself, nor do artists’ professional representatives always think through contract negotiations with success in mind. Too often, the negotiations center on  what to do in the event of failure—not success. (p.145).”

            I found the parts of the book talking about accounting and royalty numbers can be pretty confusing. It would have been better if he would have had graphs, pictures or something that show what he is saying. I was very disappointed this book didn’t have example agreements and forms. Usually these types of books have examples at the back of the book and Thall’s book doesn’t.  Don't plan on reading this book once. I found myself reading it through none stop the fist time and then reading it again highlighting the key information I want to easily find.  None of these issues I have brought up isn't bad enough to say I wouldn't recommend this book.  I highly recommend getting this book. It is worth the money. 

The Chapters & Its Topics:

• Chapter 1: Introduction- Selecting the right attorney, Personal Representation, Deal Makers and Blockers.
•  
• Chapter 2: Investors- Costs of Being heard, Investors and Investment Agreements, Finding the Money, Internet-Specific Offerings, The Safe Harbor Disclaimer, Getting the Right Advice, Paying It Back, Overcalls and Conversions, Commissions, Crowdfunding, Finding a Back who’s knows what He/she doing.
•  
• Chapter 3: Advances
•  
• Chapter 4: Royalties- How the Royalty Pie is sliced and Who Gets the Pieces, Recording Costs, Payment on Less than 100% of Records sold, “New” Technology, Two Diabolical Deduction Devices, Reducing Mechanical Royalties, Other Import Deductions, Free Goods, Myth of Royalty Escalations, Accountings, Audits, and the Statute of Limitations, How Responsible Should Record Companies Be?, Effects of Digital Downloading on Pricing and Royalties, 360 deals.
•  
• Chapter 5: Personal Management- What a Personal Manager Should and Should Not Be, Managing the Five Stages of an Artist’s Career, Remakes, Choosing Your Manager, Question of Clout, Paying Your Manager, the Term of the Agreement, Extending or Terminating an Artist-Manager Relationships, Breach of Contract,
•  
• Chapter 6: Managing Your Business and Your Financial Future- What does a Business Manager Do?, Auditing the Auditor, What Kind of Business is Being Managed?, Do Business As or Form a Partnership?, Money Means Options, Managing money,
•  
• Chapter 7: When Your Job Is More Than a Gig- Employment Agreements and Disagreements- Term of Employment, Duties, Reporting Lines, Confidentiality and Competition, Stock Options, Perks, Termination, Working on a Foreign Land, Relocation and Re-Relocation, Visas, Disability and Death, Provisions that Survive Termination, Vacations, Release and Settlement, Employment Issues, Variations of Royalty Calculations, Employment Agreements with Celebrities and Others Otherwise Engaged, Mail, Ownership of Ideas.
•  
• Chapter 8: Record Producers- How 25% Can Equal 100%, Cross-Collateralization, Producers’ Royality Provisions, Producer as Author of the Sound Recording, Producers and Neighboring Rights. 
•  
• Chapter 9: Getting Your Record Heard- A Practical Guide to Marketing and Promotion- Marketing Tools, Goal-Oriented Campaign, Record Contract, victim or victor?, Television Campaigns, Radio Promotion, Airplay and Payola
•  
• Chapter 10: Touring Concerns- Club Tour, Grand Tour, Sample Tour Budget, Private Charter, Elements of Touring Agreements Commonalities and Idiosyncrasies.
•  
• Chapter 11: Merchandising- Your Band, Your Brand- Tour merchandising, retail merchandising/ web merchandising, end-of-term inventory and sell-off, artwork and photographs, coupling, life and disability insurance, piracy, audits.
•  
• Chapter 12: Audits- Examining the Audit, Flow of Money, Access to Registration Information, Television Campaigns, Interest Charges, Statutes of Limitations, Conducting Audits in Foreign Countries, Right to Audit.
•  
• Chapter 13: Music Publishing- What is a Music Publisher, Copyright: A Bundle of Intangibles, Financial Secrets and Realities, mechanical Royalty Rates Outside of USA, Foreign Taxes, Copyright Reversions,
•  
• Chapter 14: When Rodgers Meets Hammerstein- Determining Songwriter Credits.
•  
• Chapter 15: Being Your Own Music Publishing Company- Self-Publishing, Getting in Touch with the Copyright Office, Why Bother Doing It Youself?, Acquiring Copyrights, Reversion of Copyrights, Value of Copyrights, Impact of  Administrating Costs on True Earnings, Cost of Giving Away a “Piece” of the Publishing.
•  
• Chapter 16: Internet Entrepreneurship- Doing It Yourself- Competing with the Big Boys, Artist, Songwriter, Performer- and E-Commerce Expert?, Making a Living, Stealing and Protecting Against It, Dos and Don’ts, Manufacturing and Distribution, Kick starting Your Career, Podcasting, Instantaneous Dissemination of Live Performances, Creating a Website, A Word of Warning.
•  
• Chapter 17: Lost, Misplaced, Neglected , and Abandoned—Royalty Opportunities You Were Never Told.- Intro to Neighboring Rights, Broadcast Mechanicals, Neighboring Rights in Our Own Backyard: Canada, UK, Netherlands. Performing and Other Obscure Rights in Sound Recordings.
•  
• Chapter 18: Urban Music- Roots, Importance of the Mix, Career Ceilings, Hip-Hop and Pop Culture, Business Management and the Management of Business, Changing Image, Contractual Issues, Hip-Hop Rules,

• Chapter 19: Classical Music- History, The Role of Record Companies, The Composer-Artist, Music Education, Presenting the Singer, Classical Management.

• Chapter 20: Termination of Grants of Copyrights- Bastic Term protection, Termination of Grants, Duration of Copyright: Subsisting copyrights, Who can terminate, Control of Termination Decisions, Rights Granted, Windows for Termination, When Automatic Renewal Applies, Keeping Records, Technical Requirements for Termination.

• Chapter 21: Compliance with Copyright Laws- Intangible Rights and the Internet, Licensing from Music Publishing and Sound Recording Owners, Copyright Provisions Applicable to the Internet, Term of Copyright, Sampling, Borrowing, and Stealing, Rights Management, Dangerous Language Alert, Music Clearance: The Music Industry’s Revenge, International Issues: One-Stop Shopping, So Your Corporation Has Also Decided to Become Adventurous?

• Chapter 22: Catalogue Valuation- How to Improve Your Odds at Winning Big- Factors in Valuing Catalogues: An Overview, Satellite Radio, Internet Radio, Mobile Phone Streaming, and HD Radio, Evaluating Data, Who owns the Catalogue, Termination Issues, The “Trunk”, Who’s Sorry Now?, the Blacklist.

• Chapter 23: Copyright Issues- Changing Copyrights Image, Copyright Infringement, Sampling, Impact of Internet on Recording and Publishing Agreements, How the Internet Has Provided Context for Songwriters and Publishers Search for Equitable Treatment, Internet is Global: So What? , The Fairness in Music Licensing Act, Copyright Term Extension Entire Industry, MP3: How Two Letters and a Numeral Terrized an Entire Industry, Napster and Post-Napster, The More Things Change the More They Remain the Same (or Do They?)

• Chapter 24: Copyright- Can’t Live with It- Can’t Live Without It- Battles or Battle-Axes, Copyleft (aka Copy Wrong), But Not Copyright, Clearance Nightmare, Copyright and Personal Property, Misuse of Copyright, Some Suggested Solutions.

• Chapter 25: Solving Piracy in the 21^st Century- Illegal Downloading, When an Apple Boomerangs, Culture Trumps Commerce, Copyright Owners: Power (Not) to the People, What would the Greeks Do?

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."