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(with apologies to Allen Ginsberg)
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Column
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Yet despite these interesting details, Haring's overall insights are few and far between. The book feels as if it were hastily assembled, produced through a quick culling of Haring's notes from industry conferences and a few in-depth interviews with the bigger players. Haring's strong suit is not his writing; there are plenty of clunkers, like, "The traditional record industry still felt they had a slam dunk case. They would soon learn that the new school was in the house." But he does show a firm knowledge of the history of the record industry and its voracious appetite for profits. This is a history that Haring previously addressed in another book, "Off the Charts," and perhaps "Beyond the Charts" works best as a kind of addendum to the earlier title.

The slim volume offers only a scant look into the rich complications of the record-industry history that has informed the MP3 revolution as we know it; the book begs for a closer reading of some of the horrific deal making that has kept artists and fans up in arms for decades. New York Times music critic Neil Strauss, for example, has done a terrific job in feature articles of diving into the world of disgruntled musicians; Haring's book would have benefited from a similar study of the creative side of the record industry. What about comparing the MP3 movement with similar online revolutions, like the open source movement? Or examining the fans who are latching onto digital music? Haring's book might have offered a closer look at the subcultures, such as techno musicians, that have driven the MP3 movement or provided predictions about what impact the MP3 world might have in the future.

Unfortunately, Haring instead focuses primarily on the digital music entrepreneurs and record industry executives: a boatful of self-important men with CEO titles, and one woman -- the beleaguered Hilary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA. Despite their importance in the deal making, these folks don't offer much color.

"Beyond the Charts" does do a decent job of documenting the biggest players in the scene -- at least, the players that existed as of November 1999, when the book entered its editing cycle. But, of course, things have changed substantially since then, as they always do in this industry. In fact, some of the most momentous upheavals in the digital music industry have happened since his book was finished six months ago: the rise of Napster and Gnutella, the Time Warner/AOL deal that will pull Warner Music and EMI under AOL's purvey, MP3.com's multiple lawsuits with the RIAA, Listen.com's partnership with all six of the major labels, the "Internet music broadcaster" WWW.com coming out with the first online licensing deal with the RIAA and the advent of MP3 players in everything from your car to your PDA.

Haring, for example, unquestioningly cites an apparently seminal moment when the RIAA's Rosen, speaking before a crowd at the Jupiter Plug.In conference, states that "piracy ... is really not a significant concern" for the RIAA anymore. Although Haring cites this as a "stunning" moment that seemed to mark the end of the RIAA's single-minded pursuit of online music pirates, the RIAA's actions in the months since his book was published show that Rosen did not live by her words. In late December, the RIAA sued Napster for around $20 billion -- $100,000 for every song that was "pirated" on the service -- as perhaps the group's firmest anti-piracy action yet.

Ultimately, Haring doesn't seem to have much to add to the rafts of magazine articles and newspaper profiles that have already documented every step of the MP3 revolution -- other than to assemble all the data in one place. In fact, the most insightful pages of his book are the ones he didn't even write: the 22 reprinted pages of Barlow's thoughtful speech, offered up as a call to arms at the MP3 Summit last year.

"We are dealing with a cultural battle here between the forces of the individual and his or her ability to do with his or her mind as they see fit, whether it be entertaining with music or other things," Barlow explains, "and it's also a battle about culture and the culture of institutions, particularly industrial institutions and the individuals of the years to come."

And that, I'm sure, will be a subject for another book in the years to come, too. Undoubtedly other music journalists are diligently working on books about the same topic: If the publishing industry of recent years has shown us anything, it's that every twist of the digital revolution will produce at least a shelf of books. The MP3 revolution, rest assured, will be no exception.
salon.com | March 23, 2000

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