Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
The music industryAAA1/2s mighty players have been asleep at the wheel since Napster revolutionized the way music was distributed in the 1990s. Now, theyAAA1/2re in danger of becoming completely obsolete.
In Appetite for Self-Destruction, Steve Knopper is the first to offer such a detailed and sweeping account of the industryAAA1/2s wild thirty-year ride through the digital age. He takes you from the birth of the compact disc to the explosion of CD sales, the emergence of Napster through to the secret talks that led to iTunes, and finally to the industryAAA1/2s current collapse as CD sales have plummeted.
Knopper, a regular contributor to Rolling Stone, uses his incredible access to those intimately involved in the music worldAAA1/2s highs and lows, taking you 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.
The result is a fast-paced, dishy, and character-driven narrative that is riveting, informative, and highly entertaining. A veteran industry reporter telling you the current state of big music, how it got to these dire straits, and where itAAA1/2s going.