Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243248 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Synopsis
This guide explains how to find and play music on the Internet; the relationship between the Internet, musicians, and the record industry; how to use the Internet to set up and start a record label; and provides information about laws regarding copyright. It offers insight and analysis of topids as wide ranging as MP3, SDMI, WAP and ISPs, unveils the industry myths and unravels the double talk.

Customer Reviews

Passman for the 21st Century...
Adopting the informal Donald S. Passman approach to the music industry, Mewton manages to cut through the usual techno-geekery to present a comprehensive and practical guide to the rapidly evolving world of digital music.

Starting with an easy-to-follow explanation of the technologies (peer-to-peer, streaming, SDMI), the author proceeds to explain the advantages and disadvantages of embracing the internet as a distribution medium. There are guides to setting up your own virtual record company or signing with existing services such as Vitiminic or Peoplesound, and even a basic guide to the royalty shares and other terms which the 21st century artist needs to bear in mind when negotiating with record companies and publishers.

Combining a background in the creative side of the music industry with commercial experiece as a music lawyer, Mewton is able to sustain admirably the readers' interest. The only unfortunate aspect about books of this type is that they are inevitably out of date to a certain extent as soon as they are printed. Perhaps the answer is to publish this book on-line, allowing for regular updates...

Who is this guy working for?
Certainly this is a useful and complete survey of the subject and does make some useful speculations.

Nonetheless, Mewton's language is too simplistic - it runs rough shot over what could have been some nuanced and detailed conversations in disucssing the impact of the technology.

I am frankly disturbed at how the author accepts so many positions rather uncritically. It seems to at once take radical positions against the music industry while at the same time using the industry's dubious statistics to uphold its (and possibly the authors) own exploitative values.

Mewton completely shys away from any real insight into what the "true" cultural impact of this technology might bring. It seems we are getting closer to this sort of analysis, but I have yet to see it in print. Nice try, but this unashamedly biased sort of survey is hardly the stuff real revolutions are made of.