The book's focus is on successful music entrepreneurship and career development in the global music and entertainment industry. The list of specialized occupations filled by musicians is lengthy, e.g. performer, producer, arranger, composer, songwriter, lyricist, music editor, publicist, recording engineer, conductor, sound technician, manager, entertainment lawyer, promoter, booking agent, tour manager, music educator, vocal coach, private instructor, music supervisor, music programmer, electronic DJ, etc. There are also careers ancillary to music, such as event organizer, music therapist, radio station director, or entertainment director. Music plays an important role in advertising, marketing, video games, film, and digital media as well, and there are tie-ins to tourism, restaurant, and the hospitality industry. Music as an industry is multifaceted, and is a subset of the broader entertainment industry which includes sports, cinema, broadcasting, and creative digital media. The entertainment industry in aggregate is viewed as a potential growth area by governments and by commercial concerns, and often targeted and supported as a tool for sustainable international economic, social, and cultural development. There is even such a thing as music diplomacy, as a component of cultural or "soft power" diplomacy. As with many professions, the set of skills, knowledge, and strategies required to become successfully employed in the music and entertainment-related fields are not the same set of skills needed to do the actual jobs. Young musicians and others with the ambition to work in the music industry are often baffled by the many options available, conflicting information, and the lack of a clear path to success. They are thirsty for balanced and reliable knowledge about and clear direction on how to prepare for a career in the industry. Universities, colleges, and specialty training schools offer programs designed to help individuals prepare for careers in music, leading to certificates, diplomas, or degrees, including at the graduate level. But the focus of the trainings and curricula are most often only on the skills needed to perform the work and not on how to access the work through careful career preparation and entrepreneurial thinking. There is a dearth of relevant information about how to access the opportunities, leverage the training and the networks gained in school, and how to succeed through meeting the true demands of the industry. This book aims to fill this need.

There were approximately 7,000 full-time bandsmen serving in the British army in the interwar years. This was about a third of the total number of musicians in the music profession in the United Kingdom, making the War Office the largest single employer of professional musicians in the country. British army musicians were a key stakeholder in the music industry in the United Kingdom, but also farther afield, where it made a significant contribution to the maintenance of British imperial authority. To sustain the large number of bands, residential institutions provided young boys for recruitment into the army as bandsmen and, as a consequence, the army set the standard for musical training and performance. The music industry relied upon the existence of army bands for its business and the military played a significant part in the adoption of an international standard of musical pitch. Nevertheless, there was a tempestuous relationship between army bands and the BBC, as well as the recording industry as a whole. Using untapped sources and original material, Major David Hammond reveals the role and soft power influence of British army music in the interwar years.