With a growing music industry and huge interest among young people, the publication of an Irish careers book focusing on the music industry is timely. From arts officer to busker, compere, and display artist, to entertainment officer, festival organiser, plugger and roadie, The Need to Know Guide to Careers in Music, by Jackie Hayden and Johnny Lappin, runs alphabetically through more than 70 careers associated with the industry.

In 1998 Irish artists secured 7.2 per cent of album sales in Britain with Talk on Corners by The Corrs, the biggest selling album in Britain last year. However, according to Hayden, many Irish artists still claim they cannot find Irish people to fill key roles in management organisations, music publishing, publicity, road crews, merchandising and many other areas.

Scattered with anecdotes, this book is easy to read with lively job descriptions. Many of the careers do not require a formal qualification so it is one of the few sectors where it is still possible (indeed, imperative in many cases) to work your way towards a career using your own initiative. However, in recent years, the Post Leaving Cert sector, and Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Dublin, in particular, have made great efforts to offer courses which give students some hands-on experience as well as a qualification. There are also a number of relevant courses in the third-level and private sector. Unfortunately, there is little acknowledgement of this, and no effort to point students towards particular courses, in the book.

The strength of this book lies in its insider descriptions of the jobs themselves. So, for instance, we are told about the plugger whose job it is to maximise radio coverage for a record. The work may extend to television and press coverage also. "The plugger's job is arguably one of the most crucial to the success of any record. Except in the case of established fans, records are rarely bought until they are first heard by the purchaser, and using the ever-expanding network of radio stations to expose your records to potential buyers is the most efficient way of reaching a mass audience."

Pluggers must be aware of the factors that will affect a record's capacity to secure airplay. There include length, mood, production qualities, lyrical subject matter and the use of explicit language or expletives. It is suggested that the job may even take you into "the murky area of payola ie being expected to surreptitiously pay money or hand over expensive products in return for airplay but this is more rampant in the US and Far East than elsewhere".

The concert or tour promoter is "basically a gambler. He picks the artist he wants to promote, puts up the money for the running of the event, and will win or lose depending on the accuracy of his assessment of the drawing power of the artist and the whims of the general public".

Those who wish to become composers or song writers may be heartened to hear that neither John Lennon nor Paul McCartney could read or write music notation. "Indeed, many great songs are so simple they have been written using three basic chords. A classic example would be the Fleetwood Mac hit Dreams from the Rumours album. The song can be played using only two chords. When asked about this recently on television, Stevie Nicks (the song's composer) admitted that she only knew two chords at the time." The authors go on to caution would-be songwriters that the rewards, if you are successful, can be substantial, but for every success story there are tens of thousands of failures.

The introduction to the book also hits a cautionary note, saying that a career in music is something that must be approached with "hardheaded common sense. Unfortunately, success in the industry, especially for performers, is often perceived as being far easier than it actually is . . . a report issued by the Association of Music Industry Accountants as recently as 1998, (showed) of over 1,1000 acts who had albums in the charts between 1958 and 1995, a staggering 62 per cent found that their career was virtually over after just one year . . . Lisa Scott-Lee, a member of the hit-making Steps, claimed she earned more working for McDonalds at £3.60 an hour, than she was getting from the group even after several high-profile hits."

For the undaunted, Lappin and Hayden note that there are few industries that reward personal initiative so handsomely.

Both authors are experienced industry pundits with Jackie Hayden having signed U2 to their first record deal. He is a director of Hot Press magazine and his book, My Boy, about the late Phil Lynott, was a bestseller. Johnny Lappin ran Clannad's Music Publishing Company and has served as a board member of IMRO. Lappin is the author of The Need to Know Guide to Music Publishing while Hayden wrote The Need to Know Guide to the Record Industry.

The Need to Know Guide to Careers in Music by Jackie Hayden and Johnny Lappin is published by Foxrock Music Productions. RRP: £9.99