Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3, and the New Pioneers of Music by John Alderman,
Perseus, $26, ISBN 0738204056
SAY you鈥檙e a government with a licence to print money, and someone invents
the colour photocopier. Do you outlaw the copier and seize all the paper stocks,
or change your printing technology so money can鈥檛 be copied? Now say that about
music, and you鈥檙e pretty close to the furore that has dominated the
entertainment industry for the past couple of years. The music industry鈥檚
reaction to download services such as MP3.com and file-sharing services like
Napster has been to do both: sue the bastards out of business, and try to make
sure that future technology maintains their control over digital content.
In Sonic Boom, John Alderman traces developments from the launch of the
Internet Underground Music Archive way back in 1993 through to the eventual
court ruling against Napster that has more or less killed the value and joy of
the service. Along the way he covers most of the Net鈥檚 music rebels you鈥檝e heard
of and some you probably haven鈥檛: Aimster, Gnutella, Scour. If you haven鈥檛 been
following the Net鈥檚 impact on copyright and the music business, this is a pretty
good introduction to the events and personalities.
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So it鈥檚 a shame that Alderman stops there. He gives you the context, but
you鈥檒l find nothing here on how the music industry has developed over time or
the history of copyright, and still less about the economics underlying these
battles.