Ripped tells the story of how the laptop generation created a new grassroots music industry, with the fans and bands rather than the corporations in charge. In this new world, bands arent just musicmakers but self-contained multimedia businesses; and fans arent just consumers but distributors and even collaborators. A Chicago Tribune music critic and cohost of Sound Opinions evaluates the role of the Internet in revolutionizing the music industry, offering insight into how the development of digital technology has changed the ways in which fans acquire music and how the industry has responded to copyright infringements. Reprint. No less than a decade ago, the majority of mainstream music was funneled through a handful of media conglomerates. But now more individuals are listening to more music from a greater variety of sources than at any time in history.Ripped tells the story of how the laptop generation created a new music industry, with fans and bands rather than corporations in charge. In this new world, bands arent just musicmakers but self-contained multimedia businesses; and fans arent just consumers but distributors and even collaborators. Since this digital revolution hit the music industry, its infiltration into every other form of media has been well documented, if often not well understood.Ripped brilliantly illustrates how, when, and where the changes happened first and leaves us with an understanding of how to move forward.
