Inside baseball of the music industry, as told by the head of Sony music in the 1990s as they built the leading market share in the business. Self-serving? Of course. Mottola owes a great deal of his success to the fact that he tried to make it as a singer (T.D. Valentine!). Despite the fact that he didn't make it, he gained an understanding for how the process worked, the creative/recording process and the publicity process. He related to the talent in a way that most execs could not (similar to the success Les Moonves, a former actor, has had running CBS). The stories about Hall & Oates, his first big act, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, J Lo, and of course his crazy relationship w/ Mariah Carey are worth the read. The contrast between the old guard at Sony who built the company and the music business, Akio Morita and Norio Ohga, and the bureaucrats who took over, Idei and Howard Stringer (idei's "wine steward"!) could not be more stark. As with other biographies by people who had great professional success, I am again struck by how he only realized what he was missing (his first 2 children growing up) when it was too late. What price success? While listening to the history of the business side of the music industry was interesting as well as some of the artist stories, I didn't really enjoy this book. I listened to it so I'm not sure if it was the reader (Chazz Palmintieri) or if it was the author. I can only recommend this book if you are really interested in the the music business. It seems it was primarily written as a response to critics.
What do You think about Hitmaker (2013)?
I terrific look back in time & change of the music industry! Mottola truly is a music legend!
—aironsix
I can't say much except I read it, I enjoyed and in a few months I'll probably forget it.
—Nykiek
Self-absorbed narcissist gives his side of his successes, blames others for his failures.
—scootaloo
I learned so much about the music business and about my favorite artists.
—John
