In My Bookcase
Article Library of My Favorite Books on Music & Business
Welcome to my library. These are the books on music, business, and the business of music that I return to and recommend.
In My Bookcase is an ongoing series drawn from my expansive personal library. These are the best of many, and what I believe are essential reads.
Some selections are indispensable deep dives I enthusiastically recommend to my music business students at The Frost School of Music, University of Miami. Others are personal favorites that have stayed with me through years of talent booking, concert producing, and orchestral conducting.
Each article explores what a particular book taught me as I live inside the industries these authors describe.
My hope is that readers will find here a few new titles worth owning, and perhaps a different way of reading. Through a lens of practice, not theory.
These are my curated book shelves for you. And I’m just getting started.
(Links will appear as the articles go live.)
The Music Business Shelf
Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped — Dean Budnick and Josh Baron
My #1 choice for learning the history of concert ticketing and how we arrived at where we are now. (link to article)
Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us about Economics and Life — Alan Krueger
A clear-eyed look at why a few musicians earn fortunes while most struggle and what that imbalance tells us about the modern music industry’s economic models.(link to article)
The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business — Frank Rose
To understand today’s entertainment conglomerates, streaming platforms, or global touring markets, you have to understand how William Morris taught the world to monetize fame. (link to article)
The King And I: The Uncensored Tale of Luciano Pavarotti’s Rise to Fame by His Manager, Friend and Sometime Adversary — Herbert Breslin and Anne Midgette
How a brash talent manager and a gifted tenor invented the business model for classical superstardom. (link to article)
When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man
— Jerry WeintraubIt’s a rare memoir that exposes the deals behind the careers of major artists, (Elvis, Sinatra, Diamond, Dylan, Wonder, Eagles, Bee Gees) and the persistence, vision, and skills demanded to make them grow and prosper. (link to article)
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency — James Andrew Miller
This Business of Concert Promotion and Touring — Ray D. Waddell, Rich Barnet, Jake Berry
The Music Shelf
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century — Alex Ross
Tales From The Pit: Twenty-Nine Years in The Metropolitan Opera — Mark Gould
Revealing memoir by a Met Orchestra trumpet player as seen from the pit. (coming soon)
Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste — Nolan Gasser
Music Is History — Questlove
This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You — Susan Rogers
and Ogi Ogas
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain — Oliver Sacks
The Joy Of Playing, The Joy of Thinking: Conversations About Art & Performance
— Charles Rosen and Catherine Temerson
The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
The New Philosophy of Opera — Yuval Sharon
Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry —Dana Gioia
The Business Shelf
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
For me, the most important book in my business library. I have read all of Taleb’s books, all have value, however Antifragile is the standout for understanding risk and actually gaining from inevitable setbacks and disorder. (coming soon)
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life — Luke Burgis
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! — Al Ries and Jack Trout
You Can Negotiate Anything: The World’s Best Negotiator Tells You How To Get What You Want — Herb Cohen
Meet You In Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America — Les Standiford
Storyworthy: Engage,Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling — Mathew Dicks and Dan Kennedy
Join Me In the Library
If you’ve enjoyed exploring these shelves, you’ll find much more in Keeping Score, my ongoing Substack journal of the music business, performance, and the ideas that connect them.
Each week I write about what I’m reading, hearing, and learning from life inside the talent booking industry. — Michael DeMarco
Also…
Learn more about The Agent’s Desk: A 12-Part Career Guide on Becoming and Succeeding as a Music Talent Agent (here)
Beyond the Booking my series of true stories and takeaways from the world of booking and producing celebrity-level live entertainment. (here)
