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.

It's hard to feel sorry for the recording industry after listening to this book, which is a superb synopsis of the incredible greed and short-sightedness that led to the industry's current woes. As Knopper explains, by concentrating on the bottom line and losing the human element entirely--not to mention ignoring advances in technology which saw it being usurped by the digital revolution--the industry is more or less getting its just desserts. As a narrator, Dan John Miller is perfectly versed to handle these sentiments with a laconic manner. As one listens to the details of corporate malaise, greed, and overkill, it's difficult to be sympathetic. J.S.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

 

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.

Appetite for Self-Destruction by Steve Knopper
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