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 ]
Bruce Springsteen's memoir Born to Run (Simon & Schuster) has been longlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize alongside memoirs from musicians Johnny Marr and Robbie Robertson. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Think you know everything about Jane Austen? Helena Kelly invites you to think again about one of the nation’s favourite authors in Jane Austen, The Secret Radical. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A summer of Jojo Moyes has given way to an autumn of Paula Hawkins, as The Girl on the Train takes the number one spot again. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Social justice is at the center of today’s national conversation and is a special concern for millennials. Books provide perspective and guidance for the push toward a more equal nation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Leading US commentator asks: what if the entire industry made a business blunder by putting news up online for free while ignoring their print product? “What if”, asks Jack Shafer, “almost the entire newspaper industry got it wrong? What if, in the mad dash to put up editorial content on to the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comedians, spoken word artists and a gospel choir entertained guests at the launch of Robyn Travis' debut novel Mama Can't Raise No Man at the Hackney Empire in London. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The winning book at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults has been criticised for endorsing New Zealand's participation in World War I and "glorifying" the killing of Germans. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2016-08-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booktrack technology can supply a publisher's digital titles with a customizable movie-like soundtrack as well as sound effects. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twilliger replaces Thomas Pogash, who will leave the wellness publisher in August after 17 years. The post Rodale Names Stephen Twilliger CFO appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2016-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Sunday Times has moved Oli White's Generation Next (Hodder & Stoughton) to its Children's and Young Adult bestseller chart for this forthcoming Sunday's issue (19th June), after it topped the adult fiction list in last Sunday's edition (12th). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Riding the wave of Alexander Hamilton mania drummed up by the Broadway hit about the Founding Father, Elizabeth Cobbs’s forthcoming novel, ‘The Hamilton Affair,’ has been given a presale boost from two major chains. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen King is one of hundreds of resident authors in the US to have signed an open letter, addressed to "the American People", expressing their opposition to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Fry is supporting libraries by appearing in a new poster campaign from the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Brian “Head” Welch hadn’t planned to write a second book after Save Me from Myself came out in 2008 (HarperOne). Folks already knew about his drug addiction, finding Jesus, and quitting his band, Korn. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BEA is one of Emil Ferris’s first stops in the launch of her graphic novel, "My Favorite Thing Is Monsters," (Fantagraphics, Oct.), a fiction that evokes myth, horror, psychedelia, and wonder through the illustrated notebook of Karen Reyes. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Actor and writer Stephen Fry has decried the deteriorating state of the public library service, saying that libraries need to be protected as they "save lives". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Atom, the YA imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, has acquired the debut novel by music journalist Rebecca Denton. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Campbell Books, the pre-school imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books, has signed a two-book deal with pre-school music specialists Monkey Music. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Book World opened with a call for more marketing collaboration between publishers and their authors, and a keynote from the director of USC's Innovation Lab about how the major tech companies have destroyed government regulation in order to build dominant market shares. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The resurgence of vinyl has everybody talking, and listening. Maybe you've thumbed through a trend piece in The New York Times, crediting analog-loving millennials as the impetus for the revival. Or, you've read in Billboard or on Pitchfork about the trouble that comes with manufacturing vinyl.... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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