'How Music Works' is not an autobiography on the life of musician and writer
David Byrne, but is what it says on the tin, an insight into how music works.
It is told by an artist who has lived they highs and lows, through one of the
most turbulent periods of music, where music itself has gone through many
changes. During these last decades how the industry invests and rewards its
artists, how music is recorded and now captured, how we as consumers pay for
it, listen to it , share it and value it and above all the way artists earn
from it have all have changed.
Many have written about the changes in the music industry and wider media
market but few have the breadth and depth of Byrne’s experience, or importantly
the ability to communicate it. Byrne has walked the walk from the post punk New
York club scene, the highly acclaimed Talking Heads, his collaborations with
Brain Eno, his collaborations with new world music, the tours the hype and the
rock and roll. But Byrne doesn't talk about the sensational but about music,
the economics, drivers, changes and it recent recording history. He does so
from often insightful experience and by disclosing the facts behind some of the
commercial models as applied to his own music and comparing these to alternative
models.
Frank, insightful and thought provoking ‘How Music Works’ should be a ‘must
read’ for all artists, writers, producers and those associated with music and
media.
Over the next week we shall be sharing some of Byrne’s thoughts from the
book and if you are interesting in this blog you should be reading the book.
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