Edition 4 of The Unsigned Guide landed on our desk recently ...and nearly broke it in two! It's a weighty tome and no mistaking, quite daunting on first glance but once you delve beneath the covers it is a veritable goldmine of information. Designed to be a one stop shop for unsigned bands, it contains lengthy lists of industry contacts, venues, management and publishing companies, media contacts, pretty much every music service you can think of from artwork to rehearsal rooms and to cap it all straight forward explanations from people working in the industry explaining how every aspect of the business works.
Like most people I've knocked around in various bands since I was a kid, never really getting anywhere and not really knowing where to start most of the time. How I wish we had had a copy of this book all those years ago! There really is no excuse for not making a go of it when you have this kind of knowledge at your fingertips, and with an online version now available you don't even have to lug the book around.
At 863 pages there's clearly a lot to wade through but it's made manageable by colour coordinated sections that make it easy to flick to where you want to be. The sections on services, venues and press contacts are split by region so you don't have to waste time going through lots of irrelevant listings or trying to pick out the ones you want. What's both impressive and most useful about the book is the level of detail that it goes in to with every listing. Let's say you're looking for a producer to get you that unique sound and you're a hardcore band so it might not be much use getting The Sugababes producer in! The guide takes care of that giving a short but concise run down of each contact, telling you who they have worked with and whether they specialise in a particular genre. It also gives you that small but vitally important detail, a contact name, along with email addresses, telephone numbers and postal address.
The Guide has seemingly thought of everything this time around and includes a list of tuition and training organisations from the likes of the Halifax Drum School to Manchester MIDI School and the British Academy of New Music in London. This is followed by a reading list and even a diary listing most of the festivals and music events throughout the year. If you're thinking of getting out on the road there is a list of live music venues for each region, each with contact details and a description of the type of music they prefer (if any) so that you can avoid that sticky situation of delivering death metal to a folk club! As with other sections no stone is left unturned, which means there are a selection of UK road maps and a mileage chart.
The Unsigned Guide isn't just a glorified telephone directory however and the most interesting part of the book comes in the form of the 'You & the Music Industry' section (new to this edition). This features a host of articles and interviews by some of the leading lights in the industry and covers in some detail the pitfalls to watch out for when signing a contract or publishing deal as well as basic (but essential) explanations of how royalties work, the danger of file sharing, diversification of business models, how to set up your own label and so on. It's fascinating and enlightening reading and what really appeals is that it is all done without any hint of bullshit, nobody here is going to give you false hope or make any bones about how hard it can be, it's all presented in a very matter of fact manner and that is a particularly refreshing angle.
One of the problems with printed media of course is that it runs the risk of being out of date within a short time of publication; with The Unsigned Guide now available online this problem is solved as the online version is constantly updated with new contacts and amendments to existing listings. It's a huge undertaking to produce a book that is as comprehensive as this and the effort involved really does shine through on every page. It's not cheap with a cover price of around £40 but given the content that represents extraordinarily good value, you just won't find this level of information or detail gathered in one place anywhere else. The phrase "essential reading" is bandied around all too frequently but in this case it's fully justified. If you're in a band with any kind of aspiration whatsoever then you really can't afford to be without The Unsigned Guide.