Making money from music.

AuthorDoherty, Brian
PositionBriefly Noted - Brief article - Book review

Ben Yagoda's perceptive book The B-Side (Riverhead) laments the passing of the era of the "Great American Songbook," a period that lasted from 1925 to 1950. While his bemoaning of the end of the "standards" period is insightful--rock 'n' roll was not to blame, he argues convincingly--he also delivers sideways insight into the constant evolution of pop economics as well as pop aesthetics.

In 2013, 1.26 billion digital music tracks were sold. In 1917, over 2 billion songs' worth of sheet music were sold. Foreshadowing the arguments over music pirating in the 1990s, unauthorized...

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