Steve Knopper - Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age  

F IRST, THANKS TO the more than 230 executives, scouts, publicists, artists, lawyers, technologists, authors, teachers, inventors, managers, and DJs who shared their recollections of working in this bizarre and colorful industry, which, as Frank Dileo says, is in a confusion of flux, a flux of confusion. A small portion of them spoke anonymously or off the record; most of the rest are named in the endnotes if not in the text. Im especially indebted to those who agreed to multiple interviewsGil Friesen, Jerry Moss, Joe Smith, Marc Finer, Bob Jamieson, Bob Buziak, Bill Scull, Bob Sherwood, Stan Cornyn, Jim Caparro, Jim Guerinot, Randy Cole, Al Smith, Paul Vidich, Kevin Gage, David W. Stebbings, Howie Klein, Roger Ames, John Briesch, James T. Russell, Talal Shamoon, David Leibowitz, Michael Schulhof, and others Im sure Ive missed.

Eric Garland of BigChampagne.com saved my butt a number of timeshe suggested a rough outline at a critical, last-minute point in the pitch process, revealed important sources, and lightly pointed out when I was wandering aimlessly in the wrong direction. I owe him numerous Shiner Bocks at the top of a parking garage someplace in Austin. Several sources were kind enough to review technical passages, including the professorial James T. Russell, the good-humored Talal Shamoon, and my older brother, Mark Knopper, who in addition to inventing the internet (more or less) was (through his coincidental friendship with a preRykodisc Rob Simonds) the first person I ever knew with an actual CD player. Garland, Steve Greenberg, Jenny Eliscu, and my old Colorado Coalition pal and bullshit-detector Leland Rucker volunteered their time as readers; all made thoughtful comments, some of which led to drastic restructurings of entire chapters.

Wylie OSullivan, my editor, inherited this project, and turned out to be the absolute perfect person for it. She was gentle and patient, critical and pointed, adaptable and receptiveall at the right times, and all in an encouraging way. Daniel Lazar, my agent, happened across a funny little article (as he calls it) I wrote in Wired about attempting to kill a cheapo PC with viruses and spyware. Six ideas, three months, and eight proposal rewrites later, thanks to his savvy, perseverance, and connections, I had a book deal. This book wouldnt have been possible without Maris Kreizman, who held Wylies post at Free Press before leaving for another opportunity in early 2007. I regret never getting the chance to truly work with her. Thanks to Dominick Anfuso for believing in this project all along. In the UK, Im grateful to Dans counterpart, Dorie Simmonds, as well as Andrew Gordon for signing the book, and Angela Herlihy and Katherine Stanton for seeing it to fruition. Patty Romanowski Bashe is a former Rolling Stone editor who knows her Hall from her Oates; I was lucky to get her as copy editor.

About forty interview subjects did not wind up in the text, mostly for space reasons. They were knowledgeable and insightful and shared their valuable timeparticularly Davitt Sigerson (who turned me on to Andrew S. Groves book), Bob Divney, Dave Richards, Steve Wozniak, Tim Sommer, Jim McGuinn, Konrad Hilbers, Russell Frackman, Milt Olin, Tom DeSavia, Gilles Boccon-Gibod, F. Joseph Gormley, Asif Ahmed, James Diener, David Pakman, Lucas Mann, Bruce Flohr, Fred von Lohmann, and Fred Goldring.

Enthusiastically setting up interviews, suggesting sources, or just being kind when I needed it were Lisa Stone in Gil Friesens office, Sunnie Outlaw in Strauss Zelnicks office, Michelle Burt in Jeff Ayeroffs office, Annie Meaher in Tom Corsons office, Nathaniel Brown, and Lisa Lake (for hooking me up with Joe Smith and Marc Finer). Also helpful with connections, interviews, recollections, running interference, or tracking down clippings: George Boyd, Ann Morfogen, Jeff White, Diana DAngelo, Marianne Hasselbach, Will Tanous, Amanda Collins, Debbie Densil, Hannah Pantle, Stephanie Gold, Sara Christensen, Mary Van Daele, Bobby Ewing, Michael Zager, Molly Schoneveld, Kathryn Litsas, Bill Bentley, Jim Kloiber, Christian Algar, Joanne Dant, Lauren Harris, Fernando Aguilar, Stephan Weikert, Wendy Washington, Brian Lucas, Yvonne Gomez, Sohayla Cude, Karen Allen, Joerg Howe, Marc Pollack, Alfonso Alvarez, Marnie Black, Patti Conte, Peter Lofrumento, Chad Goonan, Vera Salamone, Jacqueline Park, Rich LaMagna, Kay Lyn Byrne, Matt Graves, Matthias Rose, Nakia Fowler, Susan Gordon, Doug Wyllie, Ilka Becker, Carrie Davis, Ricki Seidman, Isabelle Caldenbach, Cathy Arthur, Laura Ormes, Jennifer Stryd-Donahue, Steve Karas, Jeannie Kedis, Steven Strosser, Sue Turner, Nadia Rogers, Anna Vrechek, Leyla Turkkan, Sarah Weinstein, Theola Borden, Christina Rentz, Jocelyn Johnson, Andy Greene, Carol Chisholm, Diane Retiand, Gary Morgenstern, and Bob Kostanczuk.

Anna Loynes provided sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan; Jonathan Lamy did the same from the Recording Industry Association of America. Mark Coleman, author of the excellent book Playback , was friendly enough to respond when I came across his name on the I Love Music board and (in somewhat confused manner) sought his advice.

My editors at Rolling Stone especially Jason Fine and Jonathan Ringen, but also Joe Levy and Jann S. Wenner behind the sceneshave since 2002 given me the best possible journalistic platform to observe the cataclysmic shifts in the music industry. They were also kind enough to keep the work coming as I trudged through this book. My colleagues Brian Hiatt and Evan Serpick gave important insights at key times. Other editors who offered encouragement or at least looked the other way when I stopped pitching to them (temporarily!): Adam Rogers of Wired ; Josh duLac of The Washington Post ; Greg Kot, Carmel Carrillo, and Kevin Williams of the Chicago Tribune ; Genetta Adams, Kevin Amorim, and Glenn Gamboa of Newsday ; Tina Maples of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ; and Joe Rassenfoss and Mark Brown of the Rocky Mountain News .

Special thanks to Gloria Gaynor for her patience.

My friends and family have always enthusiastically supported this project, even when they became understandably sick of hearing about free-goods allowances and compression schemes: Dorothy Knopper, Doug, Abbie, and Benjamin Knopper, Don and Peggy Ramsdell, Jonathan Boonin, Larry Gallagher, Michael McKelvey, Maynard Eaton, David Menconi, Jim DeRogatis, Tim Riley, and fellow idiot Mark Bliesener. Gary Graff met me at a Detroit-area hotel buffet on a gray Christmas Day 2006 and gave a crucial bit of advice he probably doesnt even remember.

Finally, my father, Morton P. Knopper, died August 3, 2008. Thanks, Dad. I hope you can get books up there.

J AMES T. R USSELL hated the pops and crackles in his Bach, Beethoven, and Bartk records.

It was the early 1960s. Rock n roll was young. Frank Sinatra was still the King of Pop. Russell clung to the classical recordings hed been buying since high school. Not a single radio station played this type of music in Richland, Washington, where Russell lived. He became obsessed with preserving his LPs so they wouldnt deteriorate into static. Like some audiophiles of the time, he tried using a cactus spine instead of a steel stylus on his record player. That worked OK, but he still heard the infernal snapping and crackling. Id been tinkering with how to get better sound out of an LP for fifteen years, he says. I decided: This isnt going to work. We need a better record.