The EM Poll

Get Smart

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Geary Yelton

           

Since 1964, This Business of Music ($29.95) has been a practical resource for understanding the complexities of the music industry. Now in its tenth edition, the 528-page hardbound book provides valuable up-to-date information to artists, agents, songwriters, publishers, labels, and lawyers caught up in the ever-changing world of musical entertainment. Written by M. William Krasilovsky and Sydney Shemel (with contributions by John M. Gross and Jonathan Feinstein) and published by Billboard Books (www.billboardbooks.com), this new revision addresses ongoing technological advances and how they continue to transform the creation and marketing of music. Chapters cover industry trends, artist contracts, foreign distribution, rights and royalties, copyright protection, licensing for media, piracy, payola, and numerous other topics.

In Musimathics: The Mathematical Foundations of Music, vol. 2 ($50), author Gareth Loy continues to explore the intricate relationship between math and music. Beginning with a foreword by John Chowning (inventor of FM synthesis), the list of topics includes digital filtering, sampling, spectral analysis, audio compression, the wave equation, and the wavelet transform. For mathematically inclined composers, musicians, and audio professionals, this 562-page hardbound text from MIT Press (www.mitpress.mit.edu) provides a rigorous but intuitive introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of digital audio.