Beyond 2.0 by Steve Collins & Sherman Young
I’ve never done this before in a book review but I’m going to link to a soundcloud user. You’ll understand why a little later but for now enjoy the music.
This book was on my wishlist labelled as high priority. That may sound odd but Steve Collins is a childhood friend of mine and a person I am immensely proud of. To be honest I was expecting this to be a dull and peanut dry book that I’d struggle to read or thing of anything to write about. I was pleasantly surprised.
I can remember the first Audio CDs and the rise of Napster. I found this book a fascinating insight in to how technical and societal factors came together to push music creation and distribution in new directions. I had never thought about the origins of the mp3 format that completely changed the way I personally listened to music.
This book was more than a history lesson though. The simplified (thankfully) look at the murky world that is the world of media rights was enlightening and to a layman like myself. I said enlightening but what I really meant was convoluted and more likely to cause a brain freeze than a large slushy. That didn’t make it less interesting to read, if anything it made me think more about the byzantine clauses lobbyists and large companies have manipulated to their benefit and usually to the detriment of the artist.
Money should always flow towards the content creator. There will always be intermediaries. The morality and scruples of any individual or company will always have an impact on our imperfect society. Are content creators better off today than fifty years ago? In my opinion based not just on reading this book but other thing – probably. This book will make you think and explain explain some basic principle of the copyright quagmire that surrounds the media industry.
I said above I’d get to the soundcloud link a bit later, it is how one of the authors releases their work in to the wild. There is a section about soundcloud in this book and this account was referenced for sensible reasons. You’ll have to read the book to find out more.
Tony's Thoughts 