Zappa the entrepreneur:

Frank Zappa always tried to balance his art and the business aspect of it. Creativity was extremely important to him, and the way he delivered his art was even more important because everything had a meaning (‘conceptual continuity’). He paid specific detail to all he did and for this reason he disliked record labels that tried to change and censure the lyrics and covers of his albums.

In Zappa’s biography, Barry Miles tells us about Frank’s first trip outside North America. He flew to London to publicize Absolutely Free and The Mothers European tour. In this trip many of Frank’s entrepreneurial aptitudes would show up: “[He] calculated every detail of the presentation and marketing of the Mothers in Europe […]” He knew it had been hard making the American crowd buy The Mother’s album, and he was concerned on finding a ways to entice the British public to do the same. He took this trip as a research approach to get acquainted with the market conditions in Britain. He was well aware of the fact that market conditions vary greatly depending on the country as culture, religion, language, and preferences are different all over the world. Miles quotes Zappa saying: “We do this in the States too –I find there are regional variations in taste and we try to cater for them”. Adapting to the local market is one very smart business approach. During this trip, Zappa also referred to their music as a “product”, which definitely showed the business and managerial side of his personality.

On an interview I spotted on YouTube, when Zappa is asked whether he agrees or not with the thought that rock and roll music has satanic influences in it and it represents the forces of evil, he states that “if there is evil in the record industry, its from the lawyers and the executives, and its from the people at the record companies”. This is how badly he regarded these companies, and as he got fed up he went on to form his own record labels with manager and business partner Herb Cohen: “Bizarre Records” and “Straight Records” (both ventures with Warner Bros. Records). Having his own label gave Zappa creative and copyrights control, and full power on what was released by the MOI. However, Zappa’s search for economic independence came with other difficulties. The band had no salary. They would get advances on performances, and most of the money came from royalties. A lot of the band members were angry because they felt they were being left out of touring money and royalties. Zappa even put conversations on this matters on Uncle Meat.

It seems that Frank continuously had an entrepreneurial spirit in trying to come up with something innovative all the time. Whether it was groundbreaking music and sounds, a new developed technique for music making (xenochrony), or even an original way to express people being different (freaking out). His entrepreneurial spirit was also present in creating his own record labels, which led him to discover several artists such as Alice Cooper and The GTO’s.

Frank Zappa at PMRC Senate Hearing

Finally, his managerial and conflict resolution skills were put to test when he had to fight four lawsuits at the same time in the year 1977: one against his manager Herb Cohen, two against Warner Bros. Records, and one other with his manager against MGM. 



Frank always criticized The Beatles by saying they were just a commercial group interested in selling copies, and even made a parody of their album Sgt Pepper on his album We’re Only In It For The Money. But in my opinion, everybody was, and is, kind of in it for the money too! (and for the love for music of course). No one wants to be a starving artist. The concept of entrepreneurship is directly related to creativity, in fact it cannot exist without it, so it is only natural that Frank engaged in these types of activities during his career.