Appetite for SelfDestruction, Steve Knopper
Appetite for SelfDestruction, Steve Knopper
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Appetite for Self-Destruction
The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

Author: Steve Knopper

Narrator: Dan John Miller

Unabridged: 10 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 01/06/2009


Synopsis

For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the epic 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.Big Music has been asleep at the wheel ever since Napster revolutionized the way music was distributed in the 1990s. Now, because powerful people like Doug Morris and Tommy Mottola failed to recognize the incredible potential of file-sharing technology, the labels are in danger of becoming completely obsolete. Knopper, who has been writing about the industry for more than ten years, has unparalleled access to those intimately involved in the music world's highs and lows. 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.With unforgettable portraits of the music world's mighty and formerly mighty; detailed accounts of both brilliant and stupid ideas brought to fruition or left on the cutting-room floor; the dish on backroom schemes, negotiations, and brawls; and several previously unreported stories, Appetite for Self-Destruction is a riveting, informative, and highly entertaining read. It offers a broad perspective on the current state of Big Music, how it got into these dire straits, and where it's going from here—and a cautionary tale for the digital age.

About Steve Knopper

Steve Knopper is a Rolling Stone contributing editor who has covered the music business since 2002. A freelancer since January 1996, he has written for such publications as Wired, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, the Chicago Tribune, and Details. He also has written and edited four books, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Band and Moon Colorado. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and daughter.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on July 05, 2012

We need a book that looks at why the music industry resists innovation and makes poor decisions. This book is not that. It's a timeline as told by a series of agents, scouts and label heads. Rarely does the author question what they say and he certainly never seeks to understand it. There is the dis......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on July 22, 2021

A relatively comprehensive history of the music industry and technology from 1979-2009. Some of the material is a bit dated as technology evolves so quickly but it is still a great resource to understand why the industry is always resistant to change.......more

Goodreads review by Blog on Books on February 04, 2011

What appears as a tale of the modern day record era actually dates back even further. Music writer, Steve Knopper begins his treatise, not in the post-digital era as one might imagine from the title, but from the post-Disco era, when the business was awash with money, excesses and a party atmosphere......more

Goodreads review by Ranjeev on February 09, 2015

Why did my kids listen to my 1970s music when they were teenagers? Why was the rock of the 1990s and 2000s so corporatized and lacking in distinctiveness? Why do the kids still have to dig so deep into Bit torrent databases to find the creative stuff currently being put out by Indie bands? This book......more