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.
About this product: I just finished reading Steve Knopper's book on the downfall of the music industry. Fascinatiing. EMI does not feature much - maybe just lacking the names in the game, like Yetnikoff and Pearlman. Koppelman gets more space the Levy and one will never know if the famous $50M was a real number. The industry is castigated for missing an alignment with Napster that from this book leads one to think would have saved the world. BMG's buy of Napster is regarded with sympathy.
Very little recognition of the fact that people (typically IT) within the music industry were pushing in vain for action on digital media management in the late 1990s. I guess the fact we were unsuccessful proves the point
I do remember those meetings about Madison, SDMI et al - gripping stuff at the time. And how naive we were in those days, thinking the better quality sound of DVD Audio and SACD would actually matter to people. MP3 killed that idea! I can remember the industry meeting I was at in the Sony building where someone first mentioned MP3, and ominously predicted that the horse would be out of the stable very soon. Right he was.
Well worth the read for a music enthusiast and especially any who is or was in the industry
About this product: I just finished reading Steve Knopper's book on the downfall of the music industry. Fascinatiing. EMI does not feature much - maybe just lacking the names in the game, like Yetnikoff and Pearlman. Koppelman gets more space the Levy and one will never know if the famous $50M was a real number. The industry is castigated for missing an alignment with Napster that from this book leads one to think would have saved the world. BMG's buy of Napster is regarded with sympathy.
Very little recognition of the fact that people (typically IT) within the music industry were pushing in vain for action on digital media management in the late 1990s. I guess the fact we were unsuccessful proves the point
I do remember those meetings about Madison, SDMI et al - gripping stuff at the time. And how naive we were in those days, thinking the better quality sound of DVD Audio and SACD would actually matter to people. MP3 killed that idea! I can remember the industry meeting I was at in the Sony building where someone first mentioned MP3, and ominously predicted that the horse would be out of the stable very soon. Right he was.
Well worth the read for a music enthusiast and especially any who is or was in the industry
About this product: Harold James examines the vulnerability and fragility of processes of globalization, both historically and in the present. This book applies lessons from past breakdowns of globalization—above all in the Great Depression—to show how financial crises provoke backlashes against global integration: against the mobility of capital or goods, but also against flows of migration. By a parallel examination of the financial panics of 1929 and 1931 as well as that of 2008, he shows how banking and monetary collapses suddenly and radically alter the rules of engagement for every other type of economic activity. Increased calls for state action in countercyclical fiscal policy bring demands for trade protection. In the open economy of the twenty-first century, such calls are only viable in very large states—probably only in the United States and China. By contrast, in smaller countries demand trickles out of the national container, creating jobs in other countries. The international community is thus paralyzed, and international institutions are challenged by conflicts of interest. The book shows the looming psychological and material consequences of an interconnected world for people and the institutions they create. (20090905)
We’ve come a long way from the Peashooter Era: with the advent of modern household products and office supplies—binder clips, clothespins, rubber bands, ballpoint pens, toothpicks, paper clips, plastic utensils, and (of course) matches and barbeque lighters—troublemakers of all stripes have the components needed to build an impressive, if somewhat miniaturized, arsenal.
Toy designer John Austin provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for each project, including materials and ammo lists, clear diagrams, and construction tips, for mayhem-loving MacGyvers. The 35 devices include catapults, slingshots, minibombs, darts, and combustion shooters. Build a tiny trebuchet from paper clips and a D-cell battery. Wrap a penny in a string of paper caps to create a surprisingly impressive “bomb.” Several of the projects even include variations where combatants mount laser pointer sights to their shooters to increase their accuracy.
Finally, once you’ve built your armory, the author provides plans for a Top Secret Concealing Book to hide your stash, as well as targets for shooting practice. Never let your personal space go undefended again!
About this product: Run at Destruction explores the true life love triangle between three teachers/runners in small town America and the eventual death of the wife in her own bathtub. Drews unfolds the drama brilliantly right through to the sentencing of the husband to a life in prison and even an afterward from the mistress apologizing years later. Sent to prison, the husband and mistress still can't let go and she becomes a prison bride. Readers are left to decide for themselves if it was murder, suicide or manslaughter by neglect. Run at Destruction is lust, murder and obsession delivered with the beat of a runner's heart, as the theme of running is woven throughout. The book grabs at a large cross-section of readers because everyone can relate to the desire and often disaster that comes with affairs. This is true crime court drama and author Drews exposes the characters to such a depth that readers will feel like they are reading a novel, only, this really happened.
About this product: This skillfully researched book focuses on how a small socio-political American elite seeks to establish its control over the very basis of human survival, the provision of our daily bread. Control the food and you control the people. This is no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader inside the corridors of power, into the backrooms of the science labs, behind closed doors in the corporate boardrooms. The author reveals a World of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production. The book is an eye-opener, a must-read for all those committed to the causes of social justice and World peace.
About this product: An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze’s controversial new book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period to explore how Hitler’s surprisingly prescient vision— ultimately hindered by Germany’s limited resources and his own racial ideology—was to create a German super-state to dominate Europe and compete with what he saw as America’s overwhelming power in a soon-to- be globalized world. The Wages of Destruction is a chilling work of originality and tremendous scholarship that is already setting off debate in Germany and will fundamentally change the way in which history views the Second World War.
A widely read classic exposition of the history of Africans on the continent—and the people of African descent in the United States and in the diaspora—this well researched analysis details the development of civilization in Africa.
About this product: "A magical tale of love and redemption that is as wonderfully written as it is captivating . . . Angels earns its wings." –Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Margaret Quinn lives alone, quietly mourning the disappearance of her only child, who fled ten years earlier to join a radical student group known as the Angels of Destruction.
On a cold winter’s night, a nine-year-old girl arrives on Margaret’s doorstep, claiming to be an orphan with no place to go. This child beguiles Margaret, and together they hatch a plan to pass her off as her newly found granddaughter, Norah Quinn.
Their conspiracy is made vulnerable by Norah’s magical revelations to the children of the town, and by a lone figure shadowing the girl, who threatens to reveal the child’s true identity and purpose. Who are these strangers really? And what is their connection to the past, the Angels, and Margaret’s long-missing daughter?
BOOK
