Overview

For disgruntled music fans wondering why music played on the radio is not only worse now than in the past but also not nearly as revelatory as it once was, this book presents a detailed discussion of how the record business fouled its own livelihood. This insightful dissection covers numerous aspects of the industry's failures and shortcomings, including why stockholders play an important role, how radio went from an art to a science and what was lost in that change, how the record companies alienated their core audience, why file sharing might not be the bogeyman that the record industry would have people think, technology's effects on what and how music is heard, and dozens of other reasons that add up to the record industry's current financial and artistic woes. With eye-opening observations culled from extensive interviews, this expose offers insights into how this multi-billion-dollar industry is run and why it's losing so much money.

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9781556526435

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Reviews

Brilliantly written, insightful, a good history, and a great read. --Jack Ponti, songwriter, producer, manager, and record company president

Brilliantly written, insightful, a good history, and a great read. --Jack Ponti, songwriter, producer, manager, and record company president Engaging and enlightening . . . a solid primer to today's Byzantine music industry. -- Billboard This is the book that any one who once did time in the music business wish we had written. --Hugo Burnham, drummer for Gang of Four, former manager and major-label A&R executive To understand how recorded and broadcast music arrived at their sorry state, this is the book to read. --Larry Fast, keyboardist for Peter Gabriel and Foreigner An accurate and well-researched expose of the surreptitious, undisclosed, and covert activities of the music industry. -- Tony Bongiovi, producer An accurate and well-researched expose of the surreptitious, undisclosed, and covert activities of the music industry. --Tony Bongiovi, producer

If you don't like what you're seeing in your record store or hearing on your radio, don't blame the musicians-blame the suits.Recent studies have shown that in any given year, as many as 50 percent of the CDs purchased in the U.S. are not the product of contemporary artists, but rather classic albums from classic rockers, or reissues from old-school jazzers, or repackaged best of collections. Some fans claim the reason for the apathy toward newer releases is that rock-'n'-roll, R&B and hip-hop have been co-opted by record label numbers-crunchers, while others feel the current generation of musicians has simply run out of original ideas. A journalist/musician who's written biographies of Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, Bordowitz accuses everybody, maintaining that the entire music industry has shot itself in the collective foot. In his rambling, somewhat didactic treatise, Bordowitz points the finger at red-tape-wrapped record labels, ethically questionable radio stations and greedy retail conglomerates. He places the blame for the multi-platinum success of such dubious talents as Kanye West and Avril Lavigne on everybody from the sales-obsessed trade magazine Billboard to the manager at the local Sam Goody's. If you're already even the remotest bit familiar with the music industry's ins and outs, few of Bordowitz's revelations or assertions will come as a surprise, but for music-business newcomers, the thumbnail profiles of various musicians, producers and executives-not to mention the user-friendly descriptions of how record labels and radio stations are run-are engaging and enlightening. He doesn't offer much in the way of new firsthand reportage, but his research is first-rate, and he is consistently able to support his arguments. The downside is that Bordowitz's prose is relatively academic, his jokes feel forced and the so-called dirty little secrets aren't particularly dirty-or secret.Not as witty or breezy as the title would lead you to believe, but still a solid primer to today's Byzantine music industry. (Kirkus Reviews)

Engaging and enlightening . . . a solid primer to today' s Byzantine music industry. -- Billboard <br>

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