One accidental mastermind, one king-pin, two geniuses, and what happens when an entire generation commits the same crime.
A member of what he calls the 'pirate generation', Stephen Witt has
been bootlegging music since the mid-1990s. While amassing an
archive of hundreds of thousands of pirated mp3s, he became
obsessed with the subject of digital piracy, and eventually changed
careers to write this thrilling investigative history.
He was born in New Hampshire in 1979, raised in the Midwest and
graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in
mathematics. He spent the next six years working for hedge funds in
Chicago and New York. Following a spell in East Africa working in
economic development, he graduated from Columbia University's
Graduate School of Journalism in 2011.
He lives in Brooklyn, New York. How Music Got Free is his first
book.
Enthralling… A terrific, timely, informative book… Witt is an
authoritative, enthusiastic, sure-footed guide, and his research
and his storytelling are exemplary… How Music Got Free stands
comparison to The Social Network
*Sunday Times*
Incredible, possibly canonical. . . . A story that's too bizarre to
make up, but needed to be told. . . . Even if you're not a music
geek, How Music Got Free is one of the most gripping investigative
books of the year.
*Vice*
Like Bond meets 28 Days Later... Witt tells a thrilling tale, with
a cast of music biz bigwigs, painstaking German boffins, and
pirates and petty thieves. Witt’s writing reminded me of all my
favourite modern essayists: Remnick, Franzen and John Jeremiah
Sullivan. I loved it
*Colin Greenwood, Radiohead*
Brilliant... Like many great works of investigative journalism it
makes it clear that this is one of those stories you think you know
until you realise you don’t
*The Spectator*
A fantastic book and a scintillating achievement
*Felix Martin, author of Money: the unauthorised biography*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |