Imogen Edwards-Jones has written another book in her Babylon series where she researches an industry to see how it operates in the real world and then writes a fictionalized account of it to protect the innocent (and quite often the guilty).

In this book it is the music industry she has a look at, no doubt because of all the shows like X-Factor and all the celebrity culture there currently is.

To quote from the blurb:

Tracking a year in the making of a brand-new boy band… this is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what it really takes nowadays to be top of the pops.

It makes eye-opening reading for anyone interested in a career in music, or just fame.

She points out how CD prices are carved up with the record company getting 15% off the top for packaging (which usually never costs them more than 5%), the retailer gets around 30%, the distributor gets around 9%, the publisher 6%, the label grabs 30% and the artist is left with about 10%.

Of course their management get 20% of that 10% and out of what is left the group have to pay for things like studio time, producers, transport, roadies, accommodation, adverts, half the video costs, the tour and all the other costs have to be recouped against those royalties before the band get anything themselves.

Touring and private gigs are where the money is these days. That is why Radiohead can afford to give away an album as thy can net $20 million for a three-week tour in the States. That works fine for the big names who have an existing body of work and can fill an arena at £150 a ticket, but it doesn't really help out the ones new to the business trying to build up a body of work.

And then there is any money made from merchandising, like the t-shirts and baseball caps, roughly £2-£10 per head at a gig, depending on the artist. Less the percentages to people, the venue (about 25%), the merchandisers, copyright and producers (and the band's management's 20%).

The private gigs, where some wealthy individual pays a band or solo artist to turn up do a few songs and leave again, can be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds with some artists like Rod Stewart and Robbie Williams allegedly charging a million pounds to perform at them.

Imogen Edwards-Jones recounts how the Sugababes got £250,000 and Girls Aloud £200,000, hardly bad for what may only be twenty minutes work.

The sex, drugs and rock and roll still applies, but of course you can notice it doesn't include money in that saying. That all goes to management and the record company. Many artists can work for years and still end up broke at the end of their career.

If you, or anyone you know, are longing for fame or a career in the music business it is well worth a read as are the other four books she has written in a similar vein.

Air Babylon about the airline industry, Beach Babylon about luxury holiday resorts, Fashion Babylon which shows how the fashion industry works behind the scenes and Wedding Babylon and all the scams involved in inflating the prices to make sure it is a once in a lifetime event because you can only afford to do it once.