ldquoHow Music Got Free has the clear writing and brisk reportorial acumen of a Michael Lewis bookrdquomdashDwight Garner The New York TimesWhat happens when an entire generation commits the same crimeHow Music Got Free is a riveting story of obsession music crime and money featuring visionaries and criminals moguls and tech-savvy teenagers Itrsquos about the greatest pirate in history the most powerful executive in the music business a revolutionary invention and an illegal website four times the size of the iTunes Music StoreJournalist Stephen Witt traces the secret history of digital music piracy from the German audio engineers who invented the mp to a North Carolina compact-disc manufacturing plant where factory worker Dell Glover leaked nearly two thousand albums over the course of a decade to the high-rises of midtown Manhattan where music executive Doug Morris cornered the global market on rap and finally into the darkest recesses of the InternetThrough these interwoven narratives Witt has written a thrilling book that depicts the moment in history when ordinary life became forever entwined with the world online mdash when suddenly all the music ever recorded was available for free In the page-turning tradition of writers like Michael Lewis and Lawrence Wright Wittrsquos deeply-reported first book introduces the unforgettable charactersmdashinventors executives factory workers and smugglersmdashwho revolutionized an entire artform and reveals for the first time the secret underworld of media pirates that transformed our digital livesAn irresistible never-before-told story of greed cunning genius and deceit How Music Got Free isnrsquot just a story of the music industrymdashitrsquos a must-read history of the Internet itself.
