“Lancing the f***ing boil”: how digital killed Big Music

The industry learned to mint hits (and therefore money) in the 60s and 70s, but it was the CD that made record companies into global behemoths. Knopper takes half his book explaining the CD boom, only coming to Napster 113 pages into his tale. That's because, in his telling of the story, the downfall of the labels in the age of digital distribution only makes sense when looking at the last major format shift and the huge profits it brought the industry.