Pay for Play: How the Music Industry Works, Where the Money Goes, and Why

Reviewed by R.J. Miller, Director of Music Technology, Instructor of Scoring for Film & TV, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 4/3/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Organized in four sections, Prof. Wayte has presented a comprehensive view of the structure of the music industry from its infancy to its current practices. The text is extremely well written and conveys salient information on the history of the industry, the development of music publishing, copyrights and copyright infringement of musical works and sound recordings. This text contains essential information for all music students, especially those who desire a professional career in the industry.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate and in-depth. Error-free, unbiased, legally sound, well-researched and well-written.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The text is relevant to the present state of the industry and likely to be relevant for the foreseeable future. I would anticipate that Prof. Wayte will likely expand/update the text when the current debate/legal rulings on copyright ownership and registration with respect to the use of artificial intelligence has abated.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written in prose appropriate for higher education. It is lucid, precise, accessible, and concise. All references to technological or legal terms are well explained and easily understandable.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is uniform in tone and presentation throughout. The framework of the text is logical and consistent.

Modularity rating: 5

The text would seem to have been specifically designed to accommodate a modular approach. Four major sections, each with multiple relevant and related subsections. Logically presented and easily divisible into smaller sections, the text could be easily reorganized or realigned to accommodate the specific focus of a particular class.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text is presented in an extremely logical manner:
• The History and Structure of the Music Industry: Twenty-two subsections describing from whence we came to where we are.
• Copyrights and Music: Nine subsections covering the history and types of copyrights.
• Copyright Infringement of Musical Works: Five subsections defining copyright infringement, restrictions, fair usage and damages.
• Copyright Infringement of Sound Recordings: Four subsections defining personal usage, liability for sharing services, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and sampling & sound recording copyrights.
• Plus, an adequate bibliography

All sections are written in a manner that should be clear and easily understood by college music students.

Interface rating: 5

I downloaded the printable PDF format of the text, and therefore cannot comment on interface issues, navigation problems, or other issues that may occur in the digital format. However, as the text is flawlessly presented in its PDF format, I would suspect that the same is true of other versions.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text contains no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text, especially in Part I, History and Structure of the Music Industry, sights example that are inclusive of all the ethnicities involved in the music business throughout the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. At no time is the text culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.

Comments

As someone who spent 35+ years in the professional arena, I cannot overstate the importance of this text to anyone who intends to pursue a career in the music industry. This is a brilliant text and highly recommended.