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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The evangelical publisher atop Charisma Media sees a big audience for books and broadcasts that speak of God's 'everyday involvement in human life.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The debut novel 'Dead in Long Beach, California,' is a sharp, dazzling turn for Compton-raised author Venita Blackburn, who made her name with lightning-fast fiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 11:00:44 UTC ]
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In his memoir Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov reflected: “Music, I regret to say, affects me merely as an arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds.” The furor over Lolita may have died down, but this confession still has the power to shock. Did the man just say he doesn’t like... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-29 09:55:49 UTC ]
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Blaming inflation and customer price sensitivity, Indigo Books & Music, Canada's leading book retailer, saw a 12.4% decline in sales for the second quarter ending September 30. Sales fell both at physical stores and online. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Get a backstage pass to the lives of Madonna, Tupac, and George Harrison in these biographies, which hit bookstore shelves this week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Rubin, the outspoken and influential publishing executive whose publication of works by such authors as Dan Brown, John Grisham, and Michael Wolff made him a force in the book business over the past 40 years, died on October 13 in Manhattan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Judges praise the final six ‘exquisite and ambitious’ works in contention for the £50,000 award for nonfictionBooks tackling climate change, China, the NHS, European revolutions, ballet and music feature on the shortlist for this year’s Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction.The six-long list... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-10-08 19:00:48 UTC ]
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Cable used to be the only game in town for wide entertainment. Sure, if you wanted to subscribe to a game like EverQuest or World of Warcraft, you could (and well, guess the rest of us were never seeing you again). But for variety, cable is what you had—and it wasn’t cheap. So when... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-10-04 14:10:27 UTC ]
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Actor warns about dangers of artificial intelligence after discovering version of his voice based on Harry Potter audiobooksStephen Fry has issued a warning about the potential dangers of AI, after claiming that a history documentary faked his voice without his knowledge. Speaking at the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-20 16:05:11 UTC ]
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After several critics complained of being quoted out of context on the covers of Jordan Peterson’s new book, the industry body has spoken out against the practiceThe Society of Authors (SoA) has spoken out against publishers misrepresenting negative reviews on book covers and the UK publisher... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-01 06:02:22 UTC ]
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The Internet Archive is facing another lawsuit over one of its conservation projects. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and a handful of other music labels have filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit organization, accusing it of copyright infringement for digitizing, "willfully... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-08-12 11:01:08 UTC ]
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You and the Universe, adapted from his posthumous 2020 Earth Day message, will bring the late physicist’s ‘extraordinary work to life for readers of all ages’A new children’s picture book by Stephen Hawking is due to be published six years after the theoretical physicist’s death.You and the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-04 12:26:34 UTC ]
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From Bono to Jarvis Cocker, Bruce Springsteen to Cosey Fanni Tutti, the last decade has seen an explosion of books by artists from every walk of musical life. Why is this once-rare genre striking a chord with stars and readers alike?By her own admission, Miki Berenyi was not a woman itching to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-15 08:00:25 UTC ]
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From working with grime legends to tackling racism, author Candice Carty-Williams’s new show Champion is landmark TV. Its team talk Shola Ama, pengness – and the greatest group chat everIt’s just after noon in Birmingham and, in the hidden depths of a city centre nightclub, a singer is about to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-23 12:00:37 UTC ]
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Forthcoming titles look at the powerful music of Billy Graham's crusades, the spiritual depth of Loretta Lynn's songs, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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I’ve been working on a theory about novelists lately: most of us wish we were rock stars. I’m basing this on a few things, like, for example, who wouldn’t want to be a rock star? Also, with all our anonymity, social anxiety disorders, and how we tend to be at our best while wearing sweatpants […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-07 08:52:59 UTC ]
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“The Boogeyman” is just one of the short stories in the 1978 collection that cemented Stephen King’s status as the master of horror. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2023-06-01 18:18:34 UTC ]
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Jenny Fran Davis’ debut novel Dykette is indisputably, vibrantly, hilariously queer. Dykette follows three couples (and a charismatic pug) on a ten day, pressure-cooker trip to Hudson, New York. The oldest of the couple, Jules Todd (a news anchor who reads like a fictional Rachel Maddow) and her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-18 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling author urged all Republican lawmakers to stop the distractions and focus on this key issue. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2023-05-04 08:27:12 UTC ]
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Now a co-founder of Semafor, formerly of Politico, BuzzFeed and the New York Times, the author expertly pulls readers inBen Smith is a willing passenger on the rollercoaster also known as the internet. He reported for Politico, was founding editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed News and did a stint as a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-29 06:00:28 UTC ]
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