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 ]

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‘Does This Taste Funny?’: How Stephen Colbert’s Family Cookbook Came to Be

Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert once had a falling out over a spoon, but their new cookbook has them in the kitchen, with love, laughter, and the right utensils. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-09-15 09:03:46 UTC ]
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How Stephen Colbert’s Family Cookbook Came to Be

Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert once had a falling out over a spoon, but their new cookbook has them in the kitchen, with love, laughter, and the right utensils. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-09-15 09:03:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #cookbook #stephen colbert #family cookbook


Judge Rules Llano Librarian’s Wrongful Termination Suit Can Proceed

A federal court found that Suzette Baker had plausibly asserted that she was fired for opposing orders to improperly pull books that overwhelmingly represented the LGBTQ and BIPOC communities. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #bipoc communities #overwhelmingly represented #opposing orders #plausibly asserted


Judge Rules Llano Librarian’s Wrongful Termination Suit Can Proceed

A federal court found that Baker had plausibly asserted that she was fired for opposing orders to improperly pull books that overwhelmingly represented the LGBTQ and BIPOC communities. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #bipoc communities #overwhelmingly represented #opposing orders #plausibly asserted


Lin-Manuel Miranda's next musical is based on a New York cult classic

Lin-Manuel Miranda is wrapping up the recording of a concept album for a new musical co-written by playwright Eisa Davis, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The album will be based on the 1979 movie "The Warriors," whose sympathetic depictions of gang members and gritty... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2024-07-09 10:03:03 UTC ]
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Spotify’s new audiobook bundle may reduce music royalties and shortchange authors | Millicent Weber for the Conversation

Music artists say the bundle is ‘cheating’ the royalties system while authors have concerns about how streaming will affect how they’re paid and rights over their workAudio streaming giant Spotify, one of the world’s largest audio platforms, entered the audiobook market last October, offering... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-07-02 03:23:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #audiobook #free morning #guardian australia #deceiving consumers #increase profits #audiobook market


‘Songwriters deserve a bigger piece of the pie’: the music publishing boss on the threat of AI

Shani Gonzales of Warner Chappell says that although people are ‘having fun’ with creating AI songs, ‘what happens when someone tries to sell it?’Arriving in London in the teeth of the pandemic to take a top music industry job, Shani Gonzales had few opportunities to immerse herself in British... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-06-25 13:00:26 UTC ]
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Brooding on Existential Mysteries in Stephen King’s You Like It Darker, by J. Madison Davis

Brooding on Existential Mysteries in Stephen King’s You Like It Darker, by J. Madison Davis Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 06/24/2024 - 15:20 Photo by Shane LeonardAs I wrote in World Literature Today some years ago, the quality of Stephen... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2024-06-24 20:20:45 UTC ]
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One of Stephen King’s best recent novels is being made into a show for MGM+

MGM+ has ordered an eight-episode series based on Stephen King’s 2019 novel, The Institute, Deadline reported this week. The novel follows the plight of 12-year-old Luke Ellis and a group of other children with telepathic and telekinetic abilities who have been kidnapped and held captive at a... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-06-15 20:32:20 UTC ]
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Music publishers accuse Spotify of 'bait-and-switch subscription scheme'

Spotify has once again drawn the ire of the music industry. The National Music Publishers' Association has called on the Federal Trade Commission to examine the streaming service's addition of audiobook content into all of its paid subscription plans. According to the group's FTC complaint,... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-06-12 23:52:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #audiobook #royalty model #early stage #$150 million #paying customers #deceiving consumers


Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers

The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: * Noé Álvarez (Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico) Anna Dorn (Perfume & Pain) Abby Geni (The Body Farm) Aimee Nezhukumatathil... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-14 08:56:57 UTC ]
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Endnotes: ‘I Was a Teenage Slasher’ by Stephen Graham Jones

An inside look at the publication process for the bestselling author’s latest novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Taylor Swift, Adele, and Bad Bunny’s music returning to TikTok, thanks to a new UMG deal

The UMG artists’ music returns to the popular platform after a monthslong dispute. Artists from Universal Music Group, which include Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, will be returning to TikTok as the two parties have struck a new licensing agreement following an... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2024-05-02 12:22:42 UTC ]
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Legislative Attacks on State Library Associations are Dangerous—and Illegal

EveryLibrary's John Chrastka argues that the legislative attacks on the work of library associations, if allowed to stand, could undermine the foundation of all professional association activities and destabilize the collaborative networks vital to any profession. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Piracy in Italy: Study Shows Book Industry Losing €705 Million Annually

Book piracy is costing the Italian book market more than a quarter of its overall value, according to a study commissioned by the AIE. The post Piracy in Italy: Study Shows Book Industry Losing €705 Million Annually appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-03-08 22:07:51 UTC ]
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How to save papers, photos, and analog music digitally

Do you, like me, have paper documents that have long since been scanned and processed, records or music cassettes that you would like to listen to on your mobile phone, and photo prints that are planned for a digital photo book? Then you will appreciate the two-step instructions in... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-03-08 14:00:00 UTC ]
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TikTok is muting more songs amid its tussle with Universal Music

TikTok is being forced to take down more music from its platform as a royalties spat with Universal Music Group (UMG) rumbles on. UMG recently yanked recordings it owns or distributes from TikTok including tracks from the likes of superstars Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-02-27 16:18:40 UTC ]
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What Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Win Meant For American Music

When Nas described himself as the “most critically acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner / Best storyteller / Thug narrator / My styles greater” on his song “Hate Me Now” (1999), he was foretelling something monumental on the horizon. The Pulitzer Prize for Music is considered one of the nation’s most... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-21 09:55:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #pulitzer prize #kendrick lamar #american music


Indigo Books and Music Gets a Buyout Offer

Two investment firms led by Canadian billionaire Gerald Schwartz—an Indigo board member, husband of founder Heather Reisman, and the company's majority owner—has made an offer to acquire the remaining shares of Canada's largest bookstore chain. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Blake Mettee, Book Business Entrepreneur, Dies at 76

Stephen Blake Mettee died from a heart attack while snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands on November 18. A serial entrepreneur across many sectors, Mettee founded independent publisher Quill Driver Books in 1994 and Hummingbird Digital Media, a hybrid e-book distributing/retailing company, in 2015. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #book business #independent publisher #e-book #heart attack