Stephen Witt: ‘Music piracy is illegal – but morally, is it wrong?’

Kitty Empire talks to Stephen Witt about his eagerly awaited book charting the rise of the MP3 file, the online pirates who exploited it and the record industry that ignored its cultural impact until it was far too lateExtract: Going for a song: the hidden history of music piracy How Music Got Free is in essence the gripping tale of three men: Karlheinz Brandenburg, the German scientist whose lab cobbled together the MP3; Doug Morris, the old-school record company executive who presided over the rap boom and began the fight-back against piracy; and Bennie Lydell “Dell” Glover, the North Carolina CD pressing plant worker, whose light fingers and computer skills singlehandedly led to a haemorrhage of A-list rock and hip-hop releases – Eminem, Kanye West, Queens of the Stone Age, Björk – being freely available on the internet two weeks before release.The three men never met, but Witt reveals how their lives overlapped and irrevocably changed those of anyone who listens to music. Brandenburg’s genius lay in shrinking sound files down so that they could easily be sent over the internet, back when most files were huge and modems still dialled up. Owing to the bitter internecine rivalries within acoustic engineering, no one recognised the scope of Brandenburg’s technology; the inferior MP2 kept winning industry accolades and commercial applications. Universal executive Morris presided over an industry rich from the obscene profits generated by CD sales, until the secretive... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #cd sales #balance sheets

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Former Carlton boss Greenhough to launch music list

Former Carlton Books m.d. Jim Greenhough has been retained by Danish publisher Flying V Books to launch a programme of music titles in 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Hendry memoir goes to John Blake

John Blake Publishing has acquired snooker player Stephen Hendry's memoir, Me And The Table: My Autobiography. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers pay tribute to 'luminary' Stephen Hawking

Transworld's managing director Larry Finlay has paid tribute to "one of the world's greatest thinkers" following the death of Stephen Hawking, aged 76. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A brief history of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time

The late physicist’s editor, Peter Guzzardi, recalls his first meetings with Hawking and how his book became a bestsellerStephen Hawking dies aged 76I first encountered Stephen Hawking on the cover of the New York Times magazine. Inside, its pages told a story we all know today, but at the time... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Hawking, físico revolucionario y aclamado autor, muere a los 76 años

Stephen Hawking, el físico británico cuyo cuerpo estaba encadenado a una silla de ruedas por los estragos de una enfermedad neuromuscular degenerativa, pero con una mente que ilustró los límites del universo y más allá, murió el miércoles por la mañana en Cambridge, Inglaterra, confirmó... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Hawking's Books Inspired Scientists, Christian Apologists

Groundbreaking physicist Stephen Hawking, who died March 14, knocked God out of his universe in his books -- and Christian apologists put the creator right back in theirs. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook secures music licensing and baseball streaming deals

Facebook on Friday announced a pair of deals that gets the social networking giant deeper into a pair of popular consumer pursuits — music and baseball. On the music front, Facebook is following up earlier deals it struck with Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV Music Publishing by lining up a... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2018-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook signs licensing deal with Warner Music

Facebook Inc. has signed a licensing agreement with Warner Music that covers the music company’s recorded music and music publishing catalogs for use in social media such as videos and messages.  The deal paves the way for social media users to create, upload and share videos with licensed... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2018-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber dominates Penderyn Music Book Prize shortlist

Faber & Faber has three books on the shortlist for this year’s £1,000 Penderyn Music Book Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Music fans mourn end of 66-year-old British magazine NME's print edition

British music magazine NME, which helped mold musical tastes for several generations, will stop publishing its weekly print edition. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2018-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Just Announced Another Music Licensing Deal

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[ AdWeek | 2018-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Travel market takes a wrong turn

Two years of growth were ended in 2017, with print sales dropping to an all-time low. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There’s Nothing Wrong With Server-Speak. In Fact, It’s Polite!

Today in kinda niche but nevertheless instructive Twitter dustups, Pamela Paul, the editor of the New York Times book review, weighed in on two of the most divisive topics known to the internet: the service industry and grammar. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2018-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the Tunis Conference: On Piracy and the Myth of ‘Free Content’

'Governments need to be convinced that the scourge of piracy is a problem for them and for their countries’ evolving economies," IPA's  José Borghino tells the Arab Publishers Association's conference in Tunisia. The post At the Tunis Conference: On Piracy and the Myth of ‘Free Content’ appeared... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rare Stephen King works destroyed in Maine bookstore flood

Stephen King may be the Master of Horror, but one of his fans is dealing with horror of a new kind. A Bangor, Maine, bookstore owner lost several of King’s rare manuscripts and books after a burst pipe flooded his store's basement, the Bangor Daily News reports. Gerald Winters, the owner of... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rolling Stones and Wiley compete for Penderyn Music Book Prize

Books from The Rolling Stones and "Godfather of Grime" Wiley will compete for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen King, Carolyn Reidy to Be Honored at PEN Gala

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook just signed another music licensing deal–this time with Sony/ATV

It’s a trend–or, at least, it’s almost a trend. Sony/ATV is following in the footsteps of Universal Music Group and signing a deal with Facebook to let users soundtrack their videos on Facebook, Instagram, and Oculus with songs from the publisher’s catalog. That means songwriters will get... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook signs deal with Universal to give users access to licensed music

Under ‘unprecedented’ partnership, users will be able to upload videos containing licensed music on Facebook, Instagram and OculusUniversal Music Group is to become the first major music company to license its recorded music and publishing catalogues for use on Facebook, Instagram and virtual... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2017-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Witty and musical' Muldoon wins Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Irish writer Paul Muldoon will receive Her Majesty's Gold Medal for Poetry next year for the “restless, playful brilliance” of his work. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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