The Business: A History of Popular Music from Sheet Music to Streaming

by Simon Napier-Bell

“The only history of pop music you’ll ever have to read.”— Huffington Post
Let legendary rock manager Simon Napier-Bell take you inside the (dodgy) world of popular music – not just a creative industry, but a business that has made people rich beyond their wildest dreams. 
This book describes the evolution of the music industry from 1713 – the year parliament granted writers ownership over what they wrote – to today, when a global, 100 billion pound industry is controlled by just three major Sony, Universal and Warner. Inside you will uncover some little-known facts about the industry, how a formula for writing hit songs in the 1900s helped create 50,000 of the best-known songs of all time; how Jewish immigrants and black jazz musicians dancing cheek-to-cheek created a template for all popular music that followed; and how rock tours became the biggest, quickest, sleaziest and most profitable ventures the music industry has ever seen. Through it all, Napier-Bell balances seductive anecdotes – pulling back the curtain on the gritty and absurd side of the industry – with an insightful exploration of the relationship between creativity and money.

Genres: Music

386 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2023

Reviews

[Kevin Stephens]

Informative and sometimes surprising, but often seems disorganized and full of "Inside Baseball" anecdotes that might be a little too inside-y for most casual readers. Poorly edited.

[William Reid]

Good informative read