Entertainment Business

There are few art forms as visceral and emotional as opera - and few that are as daunting for newcomers. A Mad Love offers a spirited and indispensable tour of opera's eclectic past and present, beginning with Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1607, generally considered the first successful opera, through classics like Carmen and La Boheme, and spanning to Brokeback Mountain and The Death of Klinghoffer in recent years.

Ella is tired of crying. She's more powerful than ever before, but her personal life has the wow factor of vanilla ice cream. When Bear asks her to investigate a series of mysterious deaths at the ultra-hip Cauldron Festival, Ella accepts a job as one of the comedy performers but doesn't tell anyone why she is really there, not even her excited sidekick, Vanessa.

More than 85 years after his untimely death at just age 37, Irving Thalberg remains a legendary Hollywood figure. Called the “Boy Wonder of Hollywood,” Thalberg quickly climbed the ranks at MGM studios to become one of the most powerful and high-profile producers of the time, elevating filmmaking to an art form. In this definitive biography, Bob Thomas brings Thalberg's legend to life, recounting how the producer's remarkable talent for developing stars and scripts led to the creation of beloved movies such as Ben-Hur, Romeo and Juliet, and Camille.

10,000 NOs: How to Overcome Rejection on the Way to Your YES chronicles actor Matthew Del Negro's tough journey from humble beginnings, through a sea of rejections, on the way to his eventual rise to become a recognizable face on some of history's most acclaimed television shows. Along the way, he learned hard lessons about perseverance, persistence, and resilience.

Harry Cohn was the cofounder and president of Columbia Pictures, which he ran from the 1930s through the 1950s. Cohn—who abhorred personal publicity—left no writings, made no speeches, and rarely submitted to interviews. Despite this, acclaimed biographer Bob Thomas brilliantly illuminates the life of the powerful but elusive studio head in King Cohn: The Life and Times of Hollywood Mogul Harry Cohn. Thomas details the studio head's rise from a New York City song-plugger to a Poverty Row impresario, highlighting his reign as one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.

Few people have had such a massive impact on society, culture, and the Western world as Walt Disney. Over the course of his life, he built a vast entertainment empire that has become a cultural icon and persists long after the man himself left it behind. The parks, movies, and characters he envisaged have left a profound mark on our culture and the childhoods of millions. Walt Disney: Biography of an American Entrepreneur examines his life, his legacy, and the sea of successful movies that came in his wake. Buy now to hear about Walt Disney’s life like never before.

In It for the Long Run: A Musical Odyssey is Jim Rooney's kaleidoscopic firsthand account of more than five decades of success as a performer, concert promoter, songwriter, music publisher, engineer, and record producer. As witness to and participant in over half a century of music history, Rooney provides a sophisticated window into American vernacular music. Following his stint as a Hayloft Jamboree hillbilly singer in the mid-1950s, Rooney managed Cambridge's Club 47, a catalyst of the '60s folk music boom.

A deep, dark, sometimes unsettling look into the mind of writer, director Paul Schrader. The First Reformed and Affliction director bears all. Hear about why Scorsese, unlike he, just couldn’t be trusted with Scarface piles of coke. In this episode, Barry Sonnenfeld makes his compelling case for owning the title of show business’s most neurotic man. He has worked with virtually everyone and lives up to his reputation as the funniest, most brutally honest raconteur Hollywood ever produced.

Author Adam Cruz takes you on a fast-paced journey through the complicated world of streaming music. In his distinctive narrative style, he details the effects that manual interplay have had on royalties and chronicles the diminishing value of music, the rise of streaming services, and the changing attitudes of music lovers. Cruz also shares tips and tales from his days of running a widely popular NYC disco label at the turn of the millennium.

Today’s music business is more challenging than ever, but music’s availability and the consumption of this powerful force offer unprecedented opportunities for those with the desire to succeed. Music Business Essentials: A Guide for Aspiring Professionals takes musicians and beginning business students on a journey full of vital nuts-and-bolts knowledge as well as practical wisdom from a veteran industry professional.

From the sugar rush of Tokyo’s idol subculture to the discordant polyrhythms of its experimental punk and indie scenes, this audiobook by Japan Times music columnist Ian F. Martin offers a witty and tender look at the issues that shape Japanese music today. With insights into the evolution of J-pop as well as its history, infrastructure, and (sub)cultures, Martin deconstructs an industry that operates very differently from counterparts overseas.

Doctor Dread has committed his life to producing reggae music and releasing it on his label, RAS Records. He has become one of the world's foremost reggae producers and has worked with almost all the genre's icons: Bunny Wailer, Black Uhuru, Ziggy and Damian Marley, Gregory Isaacs, and others. This audiobook, full of behind-the-scenes stories, has shocking chapters that reveal aspects of reggae never before explored.

After starting two iconic music venues and surviving the dot-com bust, Michael Dorf offers gripping stories and hard-earned business lessons with a contrarian twist. As technology becomes more deeply woven into our lives, the key to success can be found in satisfying people’s yearning for live human interaction.

The Musician's Map is a complete guide to building success in music. Whether you're just thinking about learning music, or you're already in the process of building a career; this book will help you. Musician's Map provides practical advice for musicians just starting out and musicians looking to get ahead and further their career. This book is a step-by-step guide that will save you years of time, thousands of dollars, and will make you a better musician.

For generations, record companies have dominated the music industry. Artists were unable to get their material to the masses without label backing, meaning that the path to stardom inevitably involved artists having to sign exploitative record contracts. These "record deals" were profoundly one-sided, and usually imposed brutal, predatory terms on artists. Fortunately, times have changed and artists no longer need labels. It is a new music business, and it is time for a new kind of music business book.

The internationally famous bandleader Peter Duchin's six decades of performing have taken him to the most exclusive dance floors and concert halls in the world. He has played for presidents, kings, and queens, as well as for civil rights and cultural organizations. But in 2013, Duchin suffered a stroke that left him with limited use of his left hand, severely impacting his career. Days of recuperating from his stroke - and later from a critical case of Covid-19 - inspired Duchin to reconsider his complicated past.

The digital revolution poses a mortal threat to the major creative industries - music, publishing, television, and the movies. The ease with which digital files can be copied and distributed has unleashed a wave of piracy with disastrous effects on revenue. Cheap, easy self-publishing is eroding the position of these gatekeepers and guardians of culture. Does this revolution herald the collapse of culture, as some claim? In Digital Renaissance, Joel Waldfogel argues that digital technology is enabling a new golden age of popular culture, a veritable digital renaissance.

The first comprehensive look at how politicians let the entertainment industry bilk taxpayers, hijack public policy, and hurt economic investment, starting and ending with Trump.

"From Digital to Dollars: Mastering In-Person Sales in Your Photography Business" is the ultimate guide for photographers looking to elevate their business by shifting from digital-only sales to a high-value, in-person sales model. This comprehensive book provides step-by-step strategies to help you transition smoothly and successfully into in-person sales (IPS), increase your revenue, and build stronger relationships with your clients.

For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the story of the precipitous rise and fall of the recording industry over the past three decades, when the incredible success of the CD turned the music business into one of the most glamorous, high-profile industries in the world - and the advent of file sharing brought it to its knees.