Book Signing with Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune May 20, 2009

Greg Kot
Discussion & Signing for “Ripped”

Greg Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune since 1990, and his Tribune-hosted blog, Turn It Up, is a must-read for music buffs and industry insiders alike. Kot is co-host of Sound Opinions. In “Ripped” he shows how the Internet revolutionized the music industry—and turned big record labels on their ear. Now he presents a definitive account of the digital music revolution, which changed the way fans have sought and acquired music and led to the end of the recording industry as we know it. In the mid-1990s advances in Internet and digital technology made it easy for music fans to store, play, and share music, which started a shift in what was hot—and not. But for all the benefits these new mediums brought, the music industry wasn’t prepared and instead of finding innovative ways to utilize the new technology, they wasted time and resources in court, crippling themselves while online music sharing continued to thrive. With firsthand access to huge artists like Sheryl Crow, Metallica, and Radiohead, Kot masterfully chronicles the industry’s decline in this fascinating tale of digital dreams and the power of music.