Thorough book on the changes in the music industry


I just finished reading a very appropriate book to lead up to the Grammy Awards this past Sunday, Ripped, a non-fiction piece by Greg Kot following the changes in the music industry over the past decade or so, primarily dealing with digital distribution. It follows the rise of peer to peer file sharing beginning with Napster, and also how specific artists like Prince, Radiohead and NIN tried to change how music could be distributed from the artist directly to the music consumer. I was hoping he would get into more of the other P2P networks and software that have come and gone over the years (Kazaa, eMule, LimeWire, BitTorrent), but he left that stuff out. I remember during some little speech during the Grammy broadcast someone was indirectly hinting about how piracy and file sharing were a bad thing, especially hurting the artists. They did not mention how most artists only receive a very small fraction of the proceeds of any CD sale. Since I tend to purchase primarily Christian music these days, I am mostly familiar with the practices within that subsection of the industry. I know I have purchased all three of Aaron Shusts's CD's directly from his own store website on brickhousedirect.com. His site offers always have the best pricing and special links for early listening or to receive special content. Plus all his CD's ship in cardboard sleeves (no jewel boxes) and include really thick liner note booklets. I sure hope that since he is selling his music through a smaller online site that he is receiving more than 15-20% of the sales of each item. I noticed that most of the Christian artists who record for Provident (Sony) such as Third Day, Casting Crowns, Brandon Heath or Leeland have online stores via their Essential Artist Services. I wonder how they breakdown who gets how much money from those sales since they do not need a third party retailer like Wal-Mart, Amazon or Best Buy in the middle. One special bargain they seem to have right now is to receive Third Day's recent Grammy winning Live Revelations CD/DVD, the Revelation CD and the Glory Revealed II CD, all together for $30.

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