Book

Knopper, Steve, 1969-

Appetite for self-destruction : the spectacular crash of the record industry in the digital age / Steve Knopper.

New York : Free Press, ©2009.

xvi, 301 pages ; 24 cm

From the Publisher: For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the story of the precipitous rise and fall of the recording industry over the past three decades, when the incredible success of the CD turned the music business into one of the most glamorous, high-profile industries in the world and the advent of file sharing brought it to its knees. In a comprehensive, fast-paced account full of larger-than-life personalities, Rolling Stone contributing editor Steve Knopper shows that, after the incredible wealth and excess of the '80s and '90s, Sony, Warner, and the other big players brought about their own downfall through years of denial and bad decisions in the face of dramatic advances in technology. Based on interviews with more than two hundred music industry sources from Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. to renegade Napster creator Shawn Fanning Knopper is the first to offer such a detailed and sweeping contemporary history of the industry's wild ride through the past three decades. From the birth of the compact disc, through the explosion of CD sales in the '80s and '90s, the emergence of Napster, and the secret talks that led to iTunes, to the current collapse of the industry as CD sales plummet, Knopper takes us inside the boardrooms, recording studios, private estates, garage computer labs, company jets, corporate infighting, and secret deals of the big names and behind-the-scenes players who made it all happen.

Music trade -- History.

Sound recording industry -- History.

Compact disc industry -- History.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-280) and index.

Cast of characters -- Prologue 1979-1982: disco crashes the record business, Michael Jackson saves the day, and MTV really saves the day -- Chapter 1: 1983-1986: Jerry Shulman's frisbee: how the compact disc rebuilt the record business -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 1: CD longbox -- Chapter 2: 1984-1999: How big spenders got rich in the post-CD boom -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 2: independent radio promotion -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 3: Digital audio tape -- Chapter 3: 1998-2001: Teen-pop bubble: boy bands and Britney make the business bigger than ever-but not for long -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 4: Killing the single -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 5: Pumping up the big boxes -- Chapter 4: 1998-2001: 19-year-old takes down the industry-with the help of tiny music, and a few questionable big music decisions -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 6: secure digital music initiative -- Chapter 5: 2002-2003: How Steve Jobs built the iPod, revived his company and took over the music business -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 7: the RIAA lawsuits -- Chapter 6: 2003-2007: Beating up on peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and Grokster fails to save the industry, sales plunge, and Tommy Mottola abandons ship -- Big Music's Big Mistakes, part 8: Sony BMG's rootkit -- Chapter 7: Future: How can the record labels return to the boom times? Hint: not by stonewalling new high-tech models and locking up the content -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

Prologue 1979-1982 : disco crashes the record business, Michael Jackson saves the day, and MTV really saves the day -- 1983-1986 : Jerry Shulman's frisbee : how the compact disc rebuilt the record business -- 1984-1999 : how big spenders got rich in the post-CD boom -- 1998-2001 : The teen-pop bubble : boy bands and Britney make the business bigger than ever--but not for long -- 1998-2001 : A 19-year-old takes down the industry--with the help of tiny music, and a few questionable big music decisions -- 2002-2003 : How Steve Jobs built the iPod, revived his company and took over the music business -- 2003-2007 : Beating up on peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and Grokster fails to save the industry : sales plunge and Tommy Mottola abandons ship -- The future : how can the record labels return to the boom times? Hint : not by stonewalling new high-tech models and locking up the content.

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2008038739

9781416552154

1416552154

209699402

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384 Knopper