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.

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