Everything (and nothing) can be said about the music industry. Chances are you heard it before,  or you said it before, or it was discussed in a conference, or twitted and blogged…

So when you buy a book on this topic, the best you can hope is to re-learn something or understand its historic or human motivations.  And there’s certainly that to be acknowledged to  Greg Kot’s book, How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music.

But more than the learning, Ripped stays with you because it is not a dry theory, but it lives the lives of the hundreds of persons and facts that Greg Kot, a Chicago Tribune music blogger since the 1990s, collected as an insider.

The book itself is slim and reads fast (especially on the Kindle .  The style is light and entertaining.

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The Pre-MP3s/Pre-Napster Era

Music used to be “A business for the Few” (Not always the right ones). The Few being: the 4 Big Record Labels who ended up devouring all the smaller, indipendent players, and one big Radio conglomerate (Clear Channel) who thrived in the era of payola. Add the increasing pressure from WallStreet to produce profits fast and what you get is a screwed consumer who gets spoon-fed a selection of  hit-machine artists and with little or no alternatives to cultivate his music passion.

The Wired Revolution

Then, the MP3 format emerged and it freed both the consumers from the monopoly of the music labels as publishers and the artists, providing them with more “opportunities to be heard”. Napster subverted the old rules allowing consumers to access millions of songs for free, and at the same time artists discovered that giving away albums for free on the internet could lead to more sales to shows and merchandise. Apple would push the revolution a step further by making music portable.

This story is told by Kot by means of episodes. He cherry-picks bands and singers who have either won a viral following on the Web ( Death Cab for Cutie, Conor Oberst and Lily Allen), or developed innovative Internet strategies (like Radiohead) and Trent Reznor. E-zines as PitchFork also get to be the subject of a few chapters, since they ended up playing a big role in making independent music a force to be reckoned with.

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There are some missus in the book that detractors will easily pick on: these artists are only a few fortunate ones, how about all the others? Is this model fair towards everybody or is it an ecosystem again for the few?  How can copyright be reformed instead of being demolished?  The list could continue, but it’s pointless.

The book is great for what it is and doesn’t pretend to be more than that.  I am glad I read it and recommend it to anyone who likes good books!

You can enjoy an excerpt on the RadioHead here.