Appetite for Self-Destruction - by Steve Knopper (Paperback)

About the Book

The music industry's mighty players have been asleep at the wheel since Napster revolutionized the way music was distributed in the 1990s. A veteran industry reporter tells of the current state of big music, how it got into such dire straits, and where it's going.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"[A] stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made since the end of the LP era and the arrival of digital music . . . A wide-angled, morally complicated view of the current state of the music business . . . [Knopper] suggests that with even a little foresight, record companies could have adapted to the Internet's brutish and quizzical new realities and thrived . . . He paints a devastating picture of the industry's fumbling, corruption, greed and bad faith over the decades." --The New York Times

"Knopper, a Rolling Stone music business writer, thoughtfully reports on the record racket's slow, painful march into financial ruin and irrelevance, starting with the near-catastrophic sales slump that began in 1979 after the demise of disco. Though the labels persevered, they finally lost control of their product when they chose to ignore the possibilities of the Internet . . . Knopper piles on examples of incompetence, making a convincing case that the industry's collapse is a drawn-out suicide." --The Los Angeles Times

"[Knopper has a] nose for the story's human element . . . The best parts of the book, such as Knopper's analysis of the late-'90s teen-pop bubble (and how it ultimately burst), move with the style and drama of a great legal thriller--think Michael Clayton with headphones . . . This is gripping stuff. Crank it up." --Time Out New York

"The music industry is toast, my friends. And congrats to Rolling Stone vet Steve Knopper, whose fantastic new book Appetite for Self-Destruction explains why." --Village Voice

"Laced with anecdote, buttressed by detailed accounts of the most flagrant record-industry transgressions, Appetite (its title nicked from that of the Guns N' Roses debut disc) is an enthralling read, equal parts anger and regret. Knopper's writing is sharp, his approach sharper." --Boston Globe

About the Author

Steve Knopper is a Billboard editor at large, former Rolling Stone contributing editor and author of MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson and Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveler, Fortune, and New York. He has been a guest on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross and the NBC Nightly News and a featured expert source in ABC's The Last Days of Michael Jackson and All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records. He lives in Denver with his wife, Melissa, and daughter, Rose, in Edwards, Colorado.