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Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
With a new chapter on streaming! For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the epic 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. Big Music has been asleep at the wheel ever since Napster revolutionized the way music was distributed in the 1990s. Now, because powerful people like Doug Morris and Tommy Mottola failed to recognize the incredible potential of file-sharing technology, the labels are in danger of becoming completely obsolete. Knopper, who has been writing about the industry for more than ten years, has unparalleled access to those intimately involved in the music world's highs and lows. 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. With unforgettable portraits of the music world's mighty and formerly mighty; detailed accounts of both brilliant and stupid ideas brought to fruition or left on the cutting-room floor; the dish on backroom schemes, negotiations, and brawls; and several previously unreported stories, Appetite for Self-Destruction is a riveting, informative, and highly entertaining read. It offers a broad perspective on the current state of Big Music, how it got into these dire straits, and where it's going from here -- and a cautionary tale for the digital age.
410 pages, Paperback
First published January 6, 2009
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1433 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
March 27, 2009
Oh, the U.S. music industry: you made us hate you. You really, really did. Don't be angry because we learned to hate you too well.
This was an excellent look at the battle between major music labels and their heels-dug-in resistance to changing technology, opinions, and taste over the past several decades. With a host of employees as colorful as the artists they represent, it's no wonder life at a major label has resembled a ride on a roller coaster. Seeing the details and history behind the industry's less-than-stellar decisions is fascinating.
This was an excellent look at the battle between major music labels and their heels-dug-in resistance to changing technology, opinions, and taste over the past several decades. With a host of employees as colorful as the artists they represent, it's no wonder life at a major label has resembled a ride on a roller coaster. Seeing the details and history behind the industry's less-than-stellar decisions is fascinating.
August 31, 2025
Steve Knopper is a music journalist who's worked for outlets including Billboard and Rolling Stone. His 2009 book Appetite for Self-Destruction profiles the record industry's big bet on CDs and how their entrenchment in this medium led to them being caught unawares once digital music took hold through the mid/late '00s (for young'uns - by digital, I mean downloading .mp3 or files on desktop or laptop computers -- either ripping from physical CDs or downloading thru paid or free channels -- and then uploading said song files onto iPods or other digital music players). This was a fun walk down memory lane, with Knopper clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the subject, though reading this in 2025 with digital music meaning something else entirely, it's definitely more of a time capsule read than anything.
Further reading:
Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly | my review - an update to this story, though not very compellingly-written
My statistics:
Book 272 for 2025
Book 2198 cumulatively
Further reading:
Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly | my review - an update to this story, though not very compellingly-written
My statistics:
Book 272 for 2025
Book 2198 cumulatively
July 31, 2018
Except for the somewhat long backstories on every person involved, it's a good tale of clueless rich douchebags consistently f*cking themselves up.
July 6, 2012
We need a book that looks at why the music industry resists innovation and makes poor decisions. This book is not that. It's a timeline as told by a series of agents, scouts and label heads. Rarely does the author question what they say and he certainly never seeks to understand it. There is the distinct feeling that his background as a journalist held him back from making this much more than a long article. Ultimately that is why Appetite for Self-Destruction will barely outlive the year rather than become a classic like Hitmen or Nancy Griffin's Hit and Run. Purely chronicle-driven books expire almost before they are published; it is what those events come to mean through the author's analysis that stands the test of time. Knopper, in this case, didn't bother to do any.
July 23, 2021
A relatively comprehensive history of the music industry and technology from 1979-2009. Some of the material is a bit dated as technology evolves so quickly but it is still a great resource to understand why the industry is always resistant to change.
October 26, 2011
One doesn’t have to work in the music industry (although that is indeed my career background); to know that things aren’t looking so good right now. However, that also depends on where you’re standing. Regardless, the clarity of the situation is that things changed with digital. Not just digital in the iTunes realm, but dating back to the advent of CDs. That is where Appetite for Self-Destruction begins…
Appetite for Self-Destruction is divided into time frames depicting how each era in the recording industry led up to (or was effected by) the digital wave and eminent crash of the industry as we knew it. This sequencing is clear and logical, providing for easy understanding. However, the text does get bogged down with slow parts which aren’t necessarily ideal for an average reader and more targeted toward someone who either works in the industry or is truly interested in the inner-workings. For example, the explanation of the invention of CDs consists of a chapter which can cause many eyes to droop with technical and engineering jargon. Yet, your eyes are again alerted as Steve Knopper then focuses on the industry reactions to CDs (all were effected at the time: royalties, record stores, even environmentalists due to the early CD packaging of “longboxes”).
I had some problems with cohesiveness. The information was very “jumpy” seeming like Knopper had a mountain of information to present and was afraid he would forget it so he kept rushing it out there. Which brings me to my next point: much of the book is a simple re-telling of facts. Much of the “how” is covered but not the “why” resulting in a lack of deeper explanations, investigations, or future bearings on the industry. In fact, Knopper focuses too much on background info versus the topic at hand. For instance, there was more information on Shawn Fanning’s teen years and bio of his life than his company Napster’s influence on the industry. Not only does this result in the reader being unaware of what Knopper is trying to “prove” in his writing, but it also causes a lack of compelling or revealing particulars.
Appetite for Destruction is written in a manner which will either anger readers or make them feel like one of Knopper’s best friends; as it contains slang, cuss words, and short sentences. The informal language becomes annoying especially as the books follows patterns of having long, informative chunks, then an even longer boring section, and then another entertaining passage, etc. No consistency was evident.
One thing is certainly made clear by Knopper: the recording industry only reacts to its surroundings. They don’t know how to prepare ahead of time for changes and are stuck in their ways (usually to protect salaries) so execs go into crisis management mode when large events effect the industry. Sadly, this is too little, too late. Further, the industry generally runs to one solution: law suits. Sue, sue, sue. Sue everyone! Court, court, court! This way of handling things doesn’t solve anything and is the reason that there exists a love/hate relationship between the industry and fans. In time, this rift can only grow unless properly bandaged.
Bottom line: The record industry and music industry are two separate animals. There will always be a music industry. Record industry? Not so much. But you don’t have to read this book to know that much.
Appetite for Self-Destruction is divided into time frames depicting how each era in the recording industry led up to (or was effected by) the digital wave and eminent crash of the industry as we knew it. This sequencing is clear and logical, providing for easy understanding. However, the text does get bogged down with slow parts which aren’t necessarily ideal for an average reader and more targeted toward someone who either works in the industry or is truly interested in the inner-workings. For example, the explanation of the invention of CDs consists of a chapter which can cause many eyes to droop with technical and engineering jargon. Yet, your eyes are again alerted as Steve Knopper then focuses on the industry reactions to CDs (all were effected at the time: royalties, record stores, even environmentalists due to the early CD packaging of “longboxes”).
I had some problems with cohesiveness. The information was very “jumpy” seeming like Knopper had a mountain of information to present and was afraid he would forget it so he kept rushing it out there. Which brings me to my next point: much of the book is a simple re-telling of facts. Much of the “how” is covered but not the “why” resulting in a lack of deeper explanations, investigations, or future bearings on the industry. In fact, Knopper focuses too much on background info versus the topic at hand. For instance, there was more information on Shawn Fanning’s teen years and bio of his life than his company Napster’s influence on the industry. Not only does this result in the reader being unaware of what Knopper is trying to “prove” in his writing, but it also causes a lack of compelling or revealing particulars.
Appetite for Destruction is written in a manner which will either anger readers or make them feel like one of Knopper’s best friends; as it contains slang, cuss words, and short sentences. The informal language becomes annoying especially as the books follows patterns of having long, informative chunks, then an even longer boring section, and then another entertaining passage, etc. No consistency was evident.
One thing is certainly made clear by Knopper: the recording industry only reacts to its surroundings. They don’t know how to prepare ahead of time for changes and are stuck in their ways (usually to protect salaries) so execs go into crisis management mode when large events effect the industry. Sadly, this is too little, too late. Further, the industry generally runs to one solution: law suits. Sue, sue, sue. Sue everyone! Court, court, court! This way of handling things doesn’t solve anything and is the reason that there exists a love/hate relationship between the industry and fans. In time, this rift can only grow unless properly bandaged.
Bottom line: The record industry and music industry are two separate animals. There will always be a music industry. Record industry? Not so much. But you don’t have to read this book to know that much.
February 4, 2011
What appears as a tale of the modern day record era actually dates back even further. Music writer, Steve Knopper begins his treatise, not in the post-digital era as one might imagine from the title, but from the post-Disco era, when the business was awash with money, excesses and a party atmosphere that pre-dates the decades long saviours of MTV and the CD era boom.
While much of what Knopper writes about has been covered extensively in other volumes (most notably Stan Cornyn’s “Exploded: the History of Warner Music” and Fred Goldman’s book “Mansion on the Hill” and his most recent “Fortune’s Fool”) it is the arc of the book’s coverage that pieces together the argument of just how the record companies lost their way.
Instead of citing individual incidents, Knopper shows how a decade’s long confluence of events suddenly conspired to destroy the protective wall the labels enjoyed while pushing their product into the marketplace in a methodical and protected system. But from the time computer companies (seemingly) quietly got an exemption from copy restrictions in their devices (CD burners) followed (several years later) by the advent of digital file sharing (Napster, Kazaa, etc.), it was too late for the record companies to put the genie back in the bottle. While labels were focused on creating hits through trends (boy bands and pop divas being the one Knopper devotes much coverage to) as well as relying on the mainstays of independent promotion and a locked down retail structure, college kids were already fleecing the companies through illegal downloads that the labels really never saw coming.
Knopper follows the myriad of episodes by which the business was transformed, with both historical reporting as well as interviews with many of the key players, and piuts together a sufficiently detailed timeline of how the business lost its audience and sales clout through this not-so-random chain of events. Along the way, he profiles both the systems and the players who were in the middle of the maelstrom yet knew not where to turn (rootkit, lawsuits) to right their ship until an outsider, Apple’s Steve Jobs came along to move the business into his field of play.
Unfortunately, Knopper, like everyone else in the business, fails to come up with a solution to the problem (other than the popular hindsighted observation that the labels should have made a deal with the original Napster) and even concludes, as one interviewed exec states, that the answer may indeed be that “there is no answer.” Valuable reading for a full understanding about what transpired over the last two decades, but not yet a path to the future.
While much of what Knopper writes about has been covered extensively in other volumes (most notably Stan Cornyn’s “Exploded: the History of Warner Music” and Fred Goldman’s book “Mansion on the Hill” and his most recent “Fortune’s Fool”) it is the arc of the book’s coverage that pieces together the argument of just how the record companies lost their way.
Instead of citing individual incidents, Knopper shows how a decade’s long confluence of events suddenly conspired to destroy the protective wall the labels enjoyed while pushing their product into the marketplace in a methodical and protected system. But from the time computer companies (seemingly) quietly got an exemption from copy restrictions in their devices (CD burners) followed (several years later) by the advent of digital file sharing (Napster, Kazaa, etc.), it was too late for the record companies to put the genie back in the bottle. While labels were focused on creating hits through trends (boy bands and pop divas being the one Knopper devotes much coverage to) as well as relying on the mainstays of independent promotion and a locked down retail structure, college kids were already fleecing the companies through illegal downloads that the labels really never saw coming.
Knopper follows the myriad of episodes by which the business was transformed, with both historical reporting as well as interviews with many of the key players, and piuts together a sufficiently detailed timeline of how the business lost its audience and sales clout through this not-so-random chain of events. Along the way, he profiles both the systems and the players who were in the middle of the maelstrom yet knew not where to turn (rootkit, lawsuits) to right their ship until an outsider, Apple’s Steve Jobs came along to move the business into his field of play.
Unfortunately, Knopper, like everyone else in the business, fails to come up with a solution to the problem (other than the popular hindsighted observation that the labels should have made a deal with the original Napster) and even concludes, as one interviewed exec states, that the answer may indeed be that “there is no answer.” Valuable reading for a full understanding about what transpired over the last two decades, but not yet a path to the future.
March 6, 2009
Well I've never been a fan of the majors even when my favorite acts ended up on them (eventually). This book gave me more insight and answers to questions I had into why they f'd up with the digital evolution. I ended up seeing a similarity between the exec's of the music industry and the greed of Wall Street.
That being said, I still love my cds. The art work, the actual physicality of the cd itself, and especially I love albums over singles. The singles I like are the extended versions a la the 80's 12" single.
Usually the market dictates price (okay I'm not really bought on that one), but iTunes and the record industry decided 99 cents was the going price, not the purchasing public. This sounds more like price fixing and could be up for an investigation. 25 cents more like it for ne. Me cheap not really. All I'm getting for 99 cents is a digital file, no CD, no case, no artwork. The digital file also includes, my storage and my (rented) bandwidth.
A very good book and an easy read.
That being said, I still love my cds. The art work, the actual physicality of the cd itself, and especially I love albums over singles. The singles I like are the extended versions a la the 80's 12" single.
Usually the market dictates price (okay I'm not really bought on that one), but iTunes and the record industry decided 99 cents was the going price, not the purchasing public. This sounds more like price fixing and could be up for an investigation. 25 cents more like it for ne. Me cheap not really. All I'm getting for 99 cents is a digital file, no CD, no case, no artwork. The digital file also includes, my storage and my (rented) bandwidth.
A very good book and an easy read.
August 26, 2009
Key takeaway from the book: "...the record business is doomed. The music business, however, has a bright future."
No surprise; we probably already knew that, but Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Steve Knopper provides a lot of interesting details and background on how this came to pass. He personally interviewed many of the senior execs in the music business from the past 30 years and has lots of interesting stories. The book tackles the period from the post-disco crash in the early '80s through the summer of 2008. As with countless other industries, the key narrative boils down to an industry blinded by its success with its current business model and the resulting refusal to see that the world around them had completely changed. By the time they woke up to reality, Knopper points out how they had wasted 8 years fighting the digital revolution. Therefore, they had lost most of their power to both consumers and people like Steve Jobs.
Very interesting book for anyone into music and/or into how industries either react, or don't react, to changing times.
No surprise; we probably already knew that, but Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Steve Knopper provides a lot of interesting details and background on how this came to pass. He personally interviewed many of the senior execs in the music business from the past 30 years and has lots of interesting stories. The book tackles the period from the post-disco crash in the early '80s through the summer of 2008. As with countless other industries, the key narrative boils down to an industry blinded by its success with its current business model and the resulting refusal to see that the world around them had completely changed. By the time they woke up to reality, Knopper points out how they had wasted 8 years fighting the digital revolution. Therefore, they had lost most of their power to both consumers and people like Steve Jobs.
Very interesting book for anyone into music and/or into how industries either react, or don't react, to changing times.
February 10, 2015
Why did my kids listen to my 1970s music when they were teenagers? Why was the rock of the 1990s and 2000s so corporatized and lacking in distinctiveness? Why do the kids still have to dig so deep into Bit torrent databases to find the creative stuff currently being put out by Indie bands?
This book helps answer some of these questions. For sure it doesn't have all the answers, but it at least has all the facts down so you can draw your own conclusions. The part it hints at but doesn't get into much is the extensive web of snake-eating-their-tail inter-dependent contracts between industry participants which were near impossible to cut through if the industry was to respond to the digital era challenge. I'm saying the law (and lawyers) did its bit to kill the industry!
The takeover and consolidation of FM radio by large corporations is also not meaningfully explored.
That said, the book is an easy read, engaging at all times.
I did pick it up rather late so its a bit out of date, ending its survey in 2008.
This book helps answer some of these questions. For sure it doesn't have all the answers, but it at least has all the facts down so you can draw your own conclusions. The part it hints at but doesn't get into much is the extensive web of snake-eating-their-tail inter-dependent contracts between industry participants which were near impossible to cut through if the industry was to respond to the digital era challenge. I'm saying the law (and lawyers) did its bit to kill the industry!
The takeover and consolidation of FM radio by large corporations is also not meaningfully explored.
That said, the book is an easy read, engaging at all times.
I did pick it up rather late so its a bit out of date, ending its survey in 2008.
February 17, 2011
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.
. . . 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.
January 25, 2009
Finally, somebody has the balls to tell the real reasons why the record business is dying. Yes, downloading is one of the reasons, but as Knopper reports, if record companies had worked WITH Napster they could have had a working model for online sales before the majority of consumers even realized they could download material. Knopper also talks about the over-reliance on the $16 CD, the over-spending on trends that were destined to die, and the move from music people running the industry to marketing men who had no clue how to deal with an artistic product.
June 25, 2009
A nice survey of the music industry from the 1980s til now. There aren't any real conclusions drawn about the digital-driven sea changes of the past few years, other than the usual finger-pointing and scapegoating. What I did enjoy, though, was how Knopper so vividly paints a portrait of the CD-era boom times. Major labels were making so much money, and were so greedy about their condescending attitudes toward fans, that the ensuing industry seizure feels less like a downfall and more like a correction.
March 31, 2009
Interesting for its information on the stupidity of record companies/moguls (about what you might think, only worse). Nice bits on Shawn Fanning and Napster. Note: this is about big business, not music or musicians.
December 6, 2009
This was just OK for me. Given the cast of characters who've had a hand in destroying the record industry, I thought this book would've been...juicier. It sort of read like a book report.
July 23, 2025
Bits and pieces
This is a detailed, but briskly entertaining, look at the ups and (mostly) downs of the music recording industry since the introduction of the CD in the early 1980's. Readers like myself who've been following music during that period will be nodding in recognition at the chapters in the intriguing story: the promise of perfect sound on indestructible discs; the associated price hike that the recording companies felt they could impose, and the enormous profits it generated; the way the genie escaped from the bottle with the ability to rip music from CDs (which - it's pointed out here - was a specific exception built into the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act under pressure from computer manufacturers) and the development of the MP3 format to economically store and copy music files; the development of Napster as a way to easily share the files, and the way the record companies got it shut down; the subsequent entry of Steve Jobs' Apple into this field with the iPod player and iTunes music service, which generated more revenue for Apple than for the content providers; the appearance of the more sophisticated (and harder to trace) technical descendants of Napster such as Kazaa and BitTorrent, which further enabled the spread of unpaid-for music, and the record industry's attempts to combat (or perhaps accommodate) that.
Looking back on the story, the author explicitly identifies the moment Napster was shut down as the turning point in the industry's fortunes: by seeking to control (or eradicate) technology, they missed an opportunity to embrace it (he also points out that this wasn't the unanimous view across the industry) and, when Apple came along with what - again in hindsight - turned out to be an unfavorable offer for a technically attractive way to sell digital music, the industry accepted it, partly because their own attempts to create a solution hadn't been successful. There are lengthy digressions on (what in his view were) key mistakes - either in the technical sphere or, more often, merely in public relations - made by the record companies: Digital Audio Tape, the Secure Digital Music Initiative, the RIAA lawsuits and the Sony Rootkit debacle. The book (which was published in 2009) closes by wondering about the future of the industry in the digital age, and whether anything (streaming services? ringtones? live show tie-ins?) could salvage it now its denizens have have stopped clinging "stubbornly to long-held beliefs that selling millions of pieces of plastic would return them to massive profits" [p230].
This is a well-written (apart from an initial habit of over-using "storied" [pp23, 28, 61, 65, 230] as an adjective to describe record labels) account of an fascinating journey and some colorful personalities which will be of interest to all bystanders and participants; I enjoyed it very much.
Originally reviewed 5 June 2015
This is a detailed, but briskly entertaining, look at the ups and (mostly) downs of the music recording industry since the introduction of the CD in the early 1980's. Readers like myself who've been following music during that period will be nodding in recognition at the chapters in the intriguing story: the promise of perfect sound on indestructible discs; the associated price hike that the recording companies felt they could impose, and the enormous profits it generated; the way the genie escaped from the bottle with the ability to rip music from CDs (which - it's pointed out here - was a specific exception built into the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act under pressure from computer manufacturers) and the development of the MP3 format to economically store and copy music files; the development of Napster as a way to easily share the files, and the way the record companies got it shut down; the subsequent entry of Steve Jobs' Apple into this field with the iPod player and iTunes music service, which generated more revenue for Apple than for the content providers; the appearance of the more sophisticated (and harder to trace) technical descendants of Napster such as Kazaa and BitTorrent, which further enabled the spread of unpaid-for music, and the record industry's attempts to combat (or perhaps accommodate) that.
Looking back on the story, the author explicitly identifies the moment Napster was shut down as the turning point in the industry's fortunes: by seeking to control (or eradicate) technology, they missed an opportunity to embrace it (he also points out that this wasn't the unanimous view across the industry) and, when Apple came along with what - again in hindsight - turned out to be an unfavorable offer for a technically attractive way to sell digital music, the industry accepted it, partly because their own attempts to create a solution hadn't been successful. There are lengthy digressions on (what in his view were) key mistakes - either in the technical sphere or, more often, merely in public relations - made by the record companies: Digital Audio Tape, the Secure Digital Music Initiative, the RIAA lawsuits and the Sony Rootkit debacle. The book (which was published in 2009) closes by wondering about the future of the industry in the digital age, and whether anything (streaming services? ringtones? live show tie-ins?) could salvage it now its denizens have have stopped clinging "stubbornly to long-held beliefs that selling millions of pieces of plastic would return them to massive profits" [p230].
This is a well-written (apart from an initial habit of over-using "storied" [pp23, 28, 61, 65, 230] as an adjective to describe record labels) account of an fascinating journey and some colorful personalities which will be of interest to all bystanders and participants; I enjoyed it very much.
Originally reviewed 5 June 2015
May 23, 2020
It's interesting to read a book about the music industry that was published just as the smartphone and subscription streaming services were taking off. Reading it after ten years have passed is like looking back at a distant era. There actually was a time in the misty past when music publishers made tons of money selling plastic discs to eager consumers, and there were even brick and mortar retail outlets dedicated to just that product. It was the most lucrative period in the music industry's history, running from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. And then it all went up in smoke with the introduction of mp3s and the easy sharing capabilities provided by the Internet. But even the days of ripping CDs and building libraries of music files seem distant, when today we plug our earbuds into our phones to access vast musical archives for a low monthly fee.
Knopper's book is full of personal stories from entrepreneurs and business leaders in both the music and technology industries, much of it gleaned from interviews. You get a nice history of both of those industries, focusing on the years from the death of disco in the early 1980s to the end of 2008. Some of the stories told are one-sided, because important players declined to be interviewed, and so their perspective is missing. There is some sensitivity regarding the decisions made and the issues at stake. But what you get is well written and informative; Knopper is a Rolling Stone editor and brings his journalistic talent to bear in telling the tale of the implosion of the music industry.
Knopper lists a number of mistakes the major labels made as digital online music took off, but marks the big one as instinctively going after Napster instead of making a deal with them, at the very end of the 1990s. Even worse, they went after consumers - their own customer base - suing individual filesharers for copyright infringement. There were other fumbles and missed opportunities, and the irrestible conclusion is that the generation of leadership at the labels just wasn't ready to make the leap from the tried and true model of selling individual records in the millions at high profit margins, to the new models that the Internet and compressed digital music formats were making possible. They missed the boat, and it sailed on without them.
Knopper's book is full of personal stories from entrepreneurs and business leaders in both the music and technology industries, much of it gleaned from interviews. You get a nice history of both of those industries, focusing on the years from the death of disco in the early 1980s to the end of 2008. Some of the stories told are one-sided, because important players declined to be interviewed, and so their perspective is missing. There is some sensitivity regarding the decisions made and the issues at stake. But what you get is well written and informative; Knopper is a Rolling Stone editor and brings his journalistic talent to bear in telling the tale of the implosion of the music industry.
Knopper lists a number of mistakes the major labels made as digital online music took off, but marks the big one as instinctively going after Napster instead of making a deal with them, at the very end of the 1990s. Even worse, they went after consumers - their own customer base - suing individual filesharers for copyright infringement. There were other fumbles and missed opportunities, and the irrestible conclusion is that the generation of leadership at the labels just wasn't ready to make the leap from the tried and true model of selling individual records in the millions at high profit margins, to the new models that the Internet and compressed digital music formats were making possible. They missed the boat, and it sailed on without them.
January 2, 2020
I was not always a person who was really into music. Heck, even as an adult I don’t really follow that many bands. As a child, I remember my Mom having Record LPs, you know, the big vinyl disks that are now coming back into vogue. My Mom had cassette tapes in her car and we would play those things. Eventually, we got a CD player, but I was influenced by her tastes until I got to college. So I have borne witness to three major physical formats; there is the Record LP, the Cassette Tape, and The Compact Disc. Now there are many people that download their music and have Digital Copies of everything. However, it was not always like this.
So apparently, there was a music industry collapse back in the early 1980s because of Disco. This is an interesting story. It was pushed forward by one man, a DJ with a mission named Steve Dahl. Along the way, we also see the development of new formats and how they were fueled by greed and the desires of audiophiles. I had already heard some of the CD’s history, mainly as it relates to how long CDs could be, but a lot of this information is new to me.
The book this time is named Appetite for Self-Destruction and is written by Steve Knopper. It seems to be a nod to an album by Guns n’ Roses, but I am not sure. The book is written Chronologically and has a section that talks about the characters involved. This is not an exaggeration, some of these people in the Record industry were genuine characters. Most of the stories involve monetary excess and cocaine.
The book is divided into chapters, with each chapter concerned with a certain period of time. The book also goes in-depth with talking about mistakes made by the industry bigwigs. Looking back at a series of problems makes it easy to discern the core issues. On the other hand, it isn’t like everyone was totally out of the loop.
Finally, a lot of the book reminds me of the Weird Al song known as Don’t Download This Song. It recounts the times of Napster and Kazaa and all of that stuff. Rather than embracing the future, they could not see how they could thrive in the new economy of Internet 1.0, so they attempted to stifle it through lawsuits.
The book came out in 2009. It misses a bit of the new developments made by streaming services, but that is not a huge issue.
So apparently, there was a music industry collapse back in the early 1980s because of Disco. This is an interesting story. It was pushed forward by one man, a DJ with a mission named Steve Dahl. Along the way, we also see the development of new formats and how they were fueled by greed and the desires of audiophiles. I had already heard some of the CD’s history, mainly as it relates to how long CDs could be, but a lot of this information is new to me.
The book this time is named Appetite for Self-Destruction and is written by Steve Knopper. It seems to be a nod to an album by Guns n’ Roses, but I am not sure. The book is written Chronologically and has a section that talks about the characters involved. This is not an exaggeration, some of these people in the Record industry were genuine characters. Most of the stories involve monetary excess and cocaine.
The book is divided into chapters, with each chapter concerned with a certain period of time. The book also goes in-depth with talking about mistakes made by the industry bigwigs. Looking back at a series of problems makes it easy to discern the core issues. On the other hand, it isn’t like everyone was totally out of the loop.
Finally, a lot of the book reminds me of the Weird Al song known as Don’t Download This Song. It recounts the times of Napster and Kazaa and all of that stuff. Rather than embracing the future, they could not see how they could thrive in the new economy of Internet 1.0, so they attempted to stifle it through lawsuits.
The book came out in 2009. It misses a bit of the new developments made by streaming services, but that is not a huge issue.
May 22, 2023
If, like me, you have vivid memories of Napster and the outcry from the music industry (particularly Lars Ulrich) and you’ve been interested in gaining more context for both what led to that seemingly overblown response and what came after, this book is exactly what you’ve been looking for. Knopper does a fantastic job at chronicling not just how the recording industry, and record labels in particular, botched the growth of digital technology for music, but also what historically led them to feel so emboldened to set such a hard line in the sand. While the book presents information mostly chronologically, allowing for easy cause and effect understanding, my one main issue is the use of the “Big Music’s Big Mistakes” sections inserted in between these longer chapters. The information contained in these was always interesting and because these “big mistakes” often covered extended periods of time I can see why they were chosen to be set off from the regular chapters, but in many cases I feel I would have had a better understanding of how they contributed to the larger picture if they were integrated into the chapters themselves, especially since some of them, such as independent promotors, were referenced several times in the chapters anyway. Overall, this is still a very well-researched and comprehensive (if a bit outdated in its predictions) read for anyone interested in the history of the American recording and record label industry from roughly the 1970s through the early 2000s.
June 7, 2019
I read this book back to back with Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records and it is black and white. With merge, a small indie label with a small sustainable vision, you get a label that makes a living by keeping things small and keeping overhead light. Givinh bands a few thousand to record whatever album they want, with little interference.
Then in contrast you have this. Dinosaur executives with disgusting salaries that spend millions like they're hundreds, dropping $500,000 to record a single album, and wonder why their business isn't sustainable in the modern age.
This is a good book written very well. It's like watching a slow train wreck. You can see all the wrong moves that lead to the disaster, and you can yell at your book, but you can't stop the wreck.
I recommend reading these back to back, because it is a very eye opening look at the two contrasts.
Then in contrast you have this. Dinosaur executives with disgusting salaries that spend millions like they're hundreds, dropping $500,000 to record a single album, and wonder why their business isn't sustainable in the modern age.
This is a good book written very well. It's like watching a slow train wreck. You can see all the wrong moves that lead to the disaster, and you can yell at your book, but you can't stop the wreck.
I recommend reading these back to back, because it is a very eye opening look at the two contrasts.
December 6, 2022
A lot of unnecessary details and very little coherent narrative. Very detailed and often uninteresting descriptions of small episodes make it difficult to get an overall picture of the changes in this industry. A strange and unnecessary scathing, derisive tone about record companies and their executives. Too many fractions about the personal affairs of people working in the field, but these people are neither celebrities nor very interesting, so I often did not understand why it was necessary to describe it.
Actually, some of the chapters in the book are valuable, such as those on iTunes, Kazaa and Napster, the big mistakes of the labels, or the creation of the CD, but much of the book is, unfortunately, a tabloid-level gossip noise.
Actually, some of the chapters in the book are valuable, such as those on iTunes, Kazaa and Napster, the big mistakes of the labels, or the creation of the CD, but much of the book is, unfortunately, a tabloid-level gossip noise.
November 12, 2018
Not the most engaging book about the music business I've ever read, possibly because of it's reach -- there are simply too many names/characters in the 30+ year arc of the book to capture any of the many personalities involved in anylike like the detail of a book like 'Mansion On The Hill' or the MCA/Mafia book whose title escapes me now. Even so it's worth sticking with, despite its dry, acedemic style (it even has summary sections like any good text book) as it's a decent summary of the decline of the music business, even if the conclusions won't come as a huge surprise to anyone in any way interested in popular music.
March 22, 2025
Knopper has written a valuable, chronological history of the music industry's digital evolution -- but it was published in 2009, before the final transition to Spotify/Apple Music and YouTube. While Knopper is not a music or tech insider, he talked to a lot of key industry figures and it was interesting to review the early history of digital plays -- basically Napster through iTunes. The egos are all here, as well as all the mistakes -- especially on the labels side. The book, however, is dense with background info on the players, making it something of a skimmer for me.
October 26, 2022
An interesting and informative look at-- as the title says-- what went wrong in the record industry around the turn of the most recent century. Even if you're someone who keeps up with music industry news regularly (or, at least, kept up with it during the era discussed in this book) you're likely to encounter a good deal you didn't know about the players involved here. It's not the most uplifting story, but Knopper has a highly readable style that I guarantee will keep your interest.
August 20, 2020
A bit dated now but a very readable history of one of the most awful industries in contemporary life. I’m a music lover and was somewhat aware that big music bosses were ruthless but man, you’ll come away from this book convinced they were greedy, bullies, assholes, incompetent and totally arrogant. Good riddance to their business model and power.
January 16, 2024
Provides a comprehensive understanding of a quite specific yet pivotal phenomenon in the music industry, though the pacing could be quite schizophrenic at times. The retrospective experience that is reading this in 2024 was comical at times (ringtones!) and rendered the last chapter more of a though experiment than actually useful insight.
May 29, 2018
Fun book about the internals of the record industry. I learned a lot about the difference between the record industry and the music industry. Like most, its a bit dirtier and more dishonest than we think it should be.
September 8, 2020
Superleuk leesbaar boek over alle fouten die de platenmaatschappijen maakten terwijl ze probeerden zoveel mogelijk geld binnen te harken, en de digitale ontwikkelingen vooral niet te snappen. Vlot geschreven, veel facepalmwaardige feitjes.
March 25, 2021
While out of date now, it's a great read to examine the music business up until 2008 and it does mention streaming just a bit in it's final chapter. Overall a great history of the rise and fall of the record industry.
May 30, 2017
From disco to iTunes.
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