Appetite for Self-Destruction by Steve Knopper

[lightreads]

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

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A quite nice discussion of the imploding record industry (as opposed to the music industry). Full of color and bombastic personality, as appropriate. Unfortunately, I’m the sort of person whose opinion on a book can be irrevocably ruined by details. To wit, a note about how, when initially launched, iTunes took 22 cents out of every 99 cent song purchase for itself, leaving 67 cents to be divided among the various rights holders.



. . . uh . . .



I hope everyone from the author to the copyeditor has a hard time looking themselves in the mirror, is what I’m saying.



The book did introduce me to the fascinating and elusive – no really,, someone is babysitting that Wikipedia page and doing a fine job of it -- Clive Calder. I would have read about him all damn day, to hell with the rest of those clowns.





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Comments

[gnomad]

Tell me more about this unspecified 'ethical disagreement' that resulted in a buy out...

[lightreads]

No one seems to know. The book focuses on Calder a bit later during the teen pop boom, mostly as a foil to the creepy Lou Pearlman, who I used to get earfuls about from people into popslash.

[gnomad]

From the deleted history of the wiki: "What has he and Ralph Simon done with the South African Musicians, such as Richard Jon Smith, Jonatha Butler, Little Ronnie Joyce, Ladysmith Black Manbazu, etc. etc monies that were made in late 1960's to 1980?" Possible clue written there amongst the bad grammar?

[lightreads]

Entirely possible. One reason he's interesting to me in the first place is the complete desert of information. Almost no interviews, no quotables, no appearances in other people's tell-alls, complete refusal to play the 'up from the bootstraps' story for gain or for anything. Almost creepy, really.

[vito_excalibur]

This sounds fascinating, and I will be on the lookout for it! Thanks!