Includes bibliographical references and index.Prologue — Beginnings. A fracture in the endless party — Majors. Getting away with merger: answering the digital revolution through pepped-up consolidation ; The missionary zeal of the converts ; Indie-fatigable: the rearguard action against major consolidation — Piracy. Marauder on the dancefloor: music piracy goes from analogue to digital — MP3. World War MP3: the downloadable insurrection ; Shaking the temple’s pillars: MP3.com’s onslaught on the old business ; Trading standards: building a paid download business ; Internet disservice providers: the majors declare war on web providers, search engines and civilians — Standards. It’s fun to stay at the S-D-M-I: counting angels on pinheads — Startups. The startup shakedown: containing and restraining the new — Retail. Retail/re-model: the High Street on high alert ; Loss-lead us not into temptation: how supermarkets and online retailers pushed the CD business to the brink ; Out of site, out of mind: the URL land grab — Bowie. Cyberspace oddity: David Bowie’s hours… album causes retail uproar — Physical. Let’s get physical (again) — Napster. Free form: the inevitable chaos unlocked by Napster — Endings. Repercussions and concussions: the aftermath of 1999.”It was supposed to be just another bumper year for the record business. The industry was firing on all cylinders and growing exponentially; CD was king and bringing in phenomenal sums of money. The good times, culturally and financially, were rolling. Yet by December 1999, at the dawn of the new millennium, a bomb had been set squarely under the core business — the arrival of digital as we know it today. The story of 1999 is one of control: who had it, who lost it and who wanted more. It was a year of chaos for an industry that had shaped the 20th century, had grown complacent and was quickly having to adapt to a very different and an infinitely less certain future. It was one of the most pivotal, lucrative, exciting and turbulent years the record business has ever experienced. And this is how it happened.”–Back of dust jacket.