Music Production

A Manual for Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students, Third Edition

Michael Zager

In an age when the recording industry is undergoing its most radical change in over half a century, the guidance of a skilled music producer is quickly becoming indispensable for producing a great recording.

Music Production: A Manual for Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students, Third Edition serves as a comprehensive road map for navigating the continuous transformations in the music industry and music production technologies. From dissecting compositions to understanding studio technologies, from coaching vocalists and instrumentalists to arranging and orchestration, from musicianship to marketing, advertising, and promotion, Michael Zager takes us on a tour of the world of music production and the recording industry, helping students and professionals keep pace with this rapidly changing profession.

This third edition features:

New interviews with eminent industry professionals
Updated information on current trends in producing popular music and the impacts of the Music Modernization Act
Additional material on video game music
End-of-chapter assignments for course usage

An instructor’s manual is available. Please email textbooks@rowman.com.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 450 • Trim: 7¼ x 10½

978-1-5381-2849-7 • Hardback • August 2021 • $150.00 • (£115.00)

978-1-5381-2850-3 • Paperback • August 2021 • $72.00 • (£55.00)

978-1-5381-2851-0 • eBook • August 2021 • $68.00 • (£52.00)

Subjects: Music / Recording & Reproduction, Music / Instruction & Study / Theory, Music / Instruction & Study / Songwriting

Courses: Music; Music Business

Music Production

A Manual for Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students, Third Edition

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In an age when the recording industry is undergoing its most radical change in over half a century, the guidance of a skilled music producer is quickly becoming indispensable for producing a great recording.
Music Production: A Manual for Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students, Third Edition serves as a comprehensive road map for navigating the continuous transformations in the music industry and music production technologies. From dissecting compositions to understanding studio technologies, from coaching vocalists and instrumentalists to arranging and orchestration, from musicianship to marketing, advertising, and promotion, Michael Zager takes us on a tour of the world of music production and the recording industry, helping students and professionals keep pace with this rapidly changing profession.
This third edition features:
- New interviews with eminent industry professionals
- Updated information on current trends in producing popular music and the impacts of the Music Modernization Act
- Additional material on video game music
- End-of-chapter assignments for course usage
An instructor’s manual is available. Please email textbooks@rowman.com.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 450 • Trim: 7¼ x 10½

978-1-5381-2849-7 • Hardback • August 2021 • $150.00 • (£115.00)

978-1-5381-2850-3 • Paperback • August 2021 • $72.00 • (£55.00)

978-1-5381-2851-0 • eBook • August 2021 • $68.00 • (£52.00)

Subjects: Music / Recording & Reproduction, Music / Instruction & Study / Theory, Music / Instruction & Study / Songwriting

Courses: Music; Music Business

Author

Michael Zager is Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in Performing Arts, professor of music, and director of the commercial music program at Florida Atlantic University. His recording awards for producing, composing, and arranging include 15 gold or platinum records. He is the author of Writing Music for Commercials: Television Radio Commercials and New Media, Third Edition.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: Music Production
1. An Overview of Record Production
2. The Creative Concepts of Production
3. The Artist
4. Songwriting
5. Arranging and Orchestration &Approaching an Arrangement and Orchestration
6. Coaching Singers and Musicians
7. The Production Process
Part II: PRODUCING MUSIC FOR DIFFERENT VENUES
8. Music Videos, Video Games, and Film and Television Trailers
9. Producing Music for Film and Classical Recordings
10. Producing a Band
11. Producing Library Music
12. Producing Advertising Music, Television Music, and Corporate Music
Part III: recording and engineering
13. Mixing and Mastering
14. The Studio
15. Audio Engineering
Part Iv: The Music Business
16. A Combination of Art and Business
17. The Record Business
18. Marketing and Promotions
19. Business Agreements and Creating a Business Plan
20. Album Production Budget

Epilogue
Index
Bibliography
About the Author

Reviews

Michael Zager is one of those guys who has “seen it all and done it all.” His book uses all of this experience to create the comprehensive guide for music production. Today’s music business requires you to understand both the music and the business.

— Ed Seay, recording engineer & producer

Michael Zager continues to innovate, disrupt, and challenge the music industry to expand its impact. Zager's perspective and wisdom is evident on every page, and his storied career as performer, composer, producer and educator should inspire every reader of this book.

— Heather Coltman, pianist, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, James Madison University

In this book, Zager reflects on his days leading some of New York’s finest session players. The musicians knew there was always an element of excitement about his arranging and producing.

— Ray Chew, music director, Dancing with the Stars

A worthy third edition to an already stellar treatise on music production. In-depth interviews with top industry professionals are worth the price of admission alone. Easily, the most comprehensive and complete work on this subject available to date!

— Jim Waller, associate professor of music, coordinator of music industry studies,University of the Incarnate Word

Features

This third edition features:
- New interviews with eminent industry professionals
- Updated information on current trends in producing popular music and the impacts of the Music Modernization Act
- Additional material on video game music
- End-of-chapter assignments for course usage

Resources

FOR PROFESSORS
Ancillary Materials are available for this title. For access to these professor use only materials, please Sign-In if you are a registered user, or Register then email us at textbooks@rowman.com
Instructor's Manual. For each chapter, this valuable resource provides a variety of tools such as lecture outlines, student learning objectives, discussion questions, and other resources to simplify classroom preparation.