 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the epic story of the precipitous rise and fall of the modern recording industry, from an author who has been writing about it for more than ten years. With unparalleled access to those intimately involved in the music world’s highs and lows—including Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., renegade Napster creator Shawn Fanning, and more than 200 others—Steve 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, the explosion of CD sales, and the emergence of MP3-sharing websites 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. Just as the incredible success of the CD turned the music business into one of the most glamorous, high-profile industries in the world, the advent of file sharing brought it to its knees, and Knopper saw it all. |
Average Customer Rating:   The rise and fall of the recording industry Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
Review by Richard L. Weaver II, PhD.
Knopper, a reporter for Rolling Stone, has written a 301-page chronicle of the rise and fall of the recording industry. If you are a music collector, afficionado, or just an interested listener, you will find this book fascinating. The book is entertaining because of all the specific examples, anecdotes, and detail about the personalities of recording-industry executives. His word-portraits of executives are elaborate, intricate, and explicit. It is extremely well-written and easy to follow and understand. In addition, it is jam-packed with wonderful, riveting information. There are 27 pages of copious notes. Knopper's prologue covers the years 1979-82; chapter 1 covers 1983-86; chapter 2 covers 1984-89; chapters 3 and 4 cover 1998-2001; chapter 5 covers 2002-2003; and chapter 6 covers 2003-2007. Knopper's focus is on the destruction of the recording industry; little time is spent on the future except to say that the future is in digital recordings. I highly recommend this book and only regret that it wasn't longer!
Well-Researched Look into a Yet Another Industry Struggling with Change This is a very well-researched account of the fall of the music industry as we know it.
Knopper's book pulls no punches, calling a spade a spade. Much like other industries (Kodak with digital photography, for exmaple), the music Big Music refused to see the light of day.
Perhaps Big Music's biggest gaffe was killing the single, as Knopper points out.
I was there when all of this happened and I learned a great deal about the who's and why's of it all. Just a great read.
Sad for a music fan to read. Ever since I was 9, I've been a huge music fan, buying first records, then cassettes, then CDs by the boatload. During my college days in the early 90's, I lived my life in Tower Records and Newbury Comics browsing the racks. I think most people my age watched the demise of the music industry in the past ten years with a certain sadness. How was it that an incredibly powerful industry went from raking in the dough to crashing and burning.
Steve Knopper sets out to answer that question in Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. For most, including myself, the simple answer is that napster and file sharing destroyed the industry. Knopper digs deeper, starting off in the end of the Disco Era, Knopper traces an industry that continues to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in spite of itself. Along the way, Knopper nails down the many missteps that piled up for the industry, including excessive CD prices, killing the single (which made people pay $15 for 1 or 2 hits), excessive copy protection, outdated and expensive promotional methods, embracing the big box retailers at the expense of record stores, goinand finally, failing to embrace the digital file age until it was too late (and Apple had the upperhand).
Appetite for Self-Destruction is a fascinating portrait of what happens when an industry fails to adjust to changing times. While Knopper hits on the eccentric nature of the players in the business, he eschews the gossipy tone typical this type of books and instead points to the business problems that brought the industry down.
While Knopper makes clear that illegal downloads hurt the industry, he does not place the entire blame on illegal file sharing. He points out that the industry's biggest problem was not the theft of music, but their outright refusal to deal with it on any level beyond suing the pants off of people who posted files for sharing. There were several in the industry who felt that the record companies should start selling files online, and several aborted attempts at creating an iTunes like service occurred throughout the industry, but nobody wanted to let go of the cash cow that was the CD.
Appetite For Self Destruction is a great book for any music fan or business student wanting to see a case history of an industry that fails to adjust to changing times. Better than the competition Having also read the recent "Ripped" by Greg Kot, which covers the same subject, I award this one the prize. It's more comprehensive and the author interviewed many more of the players who have changed the recorded music market for the worse over the past 10 years. It's a grim tale and there is no happy ending unless you are Steve Jobs who managed to almost corner the digital download market for his iPod, a tool that is overpriced and not good sounding enough. Those who mourn the death of albums, and/or cds, should read this to learn why it is now becoming almost impossible to find recorded music for sale in anything but the sonically inferior mp3 format. Gggrrrrrrr .... APPETITE FOR MUSIC INDUSTRY HISTORY There are books which provide you with information, and there are books that provide you with historical data. This book does both with great effectiveness. Replete with page, after page of meticulous details about the history of the music industry, this book leaves no stone unturned in its quest to shine a very bright (and at times disturbing) light on the events - technological and otherwise - which lead to the demise of the music industry. Should be required reading for all music industry students and aficionados. |  |
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