When my Habilitation (the tenure research document for my professorship) was published for the first time by Studien Verlag in 2003, I did not expect that a scientific study such as this would reach such a large readership in the Germ- speaking world. However, public discussion at that time was coincidentally focused on the structural break within the music industry, culminating in a controversial debate about the causes and consequences of that revolution. While I did not intend to address the current discussion regarding the development of the music industry, it nonetheless appeared to be the right time to publish such a book. Timing, in other words, matters! The unexpected acceptance of my book by the Austrian and German readership inspired me to consider publishing it in English as well. The book provides an explanation for the emergence of innovation and creativity in the music industry by retelling and interpreting its history, from Thomas Alva Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877 to the latest innovations such as MP3-files and i Pods. The global nature of this history causes me to believe that this book is going to be of interest to an international readership as well. My hope is that this translation will be received with the same level of warmth and generosity that the publication of the German original enjoyed.

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