HOW MUSIC GOT FREE The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy

Hey, you! Yes, you—with the earbuds. Want to know how your music got to you? And why it costs so little? Download this audiobook and listen. It’s a fascinating story of the criminals—um, forward thinkers— who took down the record companies by pirating music and giving it away for free. Then they got busted. No worries though—you’re legal. Anyway, you’d think that a book that explains such an earth-shattering economic change could get some professional narration. Author Stephen Witt does what author-narrators do best, and that’s to bring passion and unassailable subject knowledge to their performances. But Witt also brings the word-dropping, uneven pacing, and too-fast reading pitfalls that new narrators exhibit. He improves as the book moves along, and it’s still worth a listen, but a more experienced storyteller would have been a better choice. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2015]