Appetite for self-destruction : the spectacular crash of the record industry in the digital age Steve Knopper.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1983-1986 : "Jerry Shulman's Frisbee : how the compact disc saved the record business (for a while)" -- 1984-1999 : how big spenders got rich in the post-CD boom -- 1998-2001 : "The teen-pop bubble : boy bands and Britney make the business bigger than ever--but not for long" -- 1998-2001 : a 19-year-old takes down the industry--with the help of tiny music, and a few questionable big music decisions -- 2002-2003 : how Steve Jobs built the iPod, revived his company and took over the music business -- 2003-2007 : "Beating up on peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and Grokster fails to save the industry : sales plunge and Tommy Mottola abandons ship" -- The future : how can the record labels return to the boom times? Hint : not by stonewalling new high-tech models and locking up the content.

Recounts the music industry's thirty-year struggle through the digital age, from the birth of the CD format to the emergence of Napster and the era of iTunes, offering insight into how the industry is suffering from infighting and a decline in CD purchasing.