This page collects all the reviews of Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll that I know of. If you've read the book, please add your own reviews via the comments on this page or via the relevant Amazon page (amazon.co.uk, amazon.com). Skip the endorsements.
Pre-publication endorsements
This is a really important book. David Jennings has done a great job shedding light on all sorts of issues and the pyramids of influence is a fantastic way of talking about the music consumer space. Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll has changed the way I think about targeting consumers. It is a super read and should be on the shelf of everyone who cares about how people find new music and media that matches their tastes.
Paul Lamere, Sun Microsystems
David Jennings is the Christopher Columbus of digital discovery, and his pioneering book is an extremely helpful map of the complex new world of online music. Equally relevant for consumers and artists, this is the first book that gets beyond the rhetoric and professionally charts the cartography of the digital revolution.
Andrew Keen, founder of Audiocafe.com and author of The Cult of the Amateur
The internet is leading to dramatic changes in the media industry. Fans and industry professionals will appreciate how Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll gets beyond the rhetoric of piracy to provide an engaging and insightful analysis of a whole new breed of online intermediaries that’s transforming how fans discover new bands and participate in their success.
Nancy Baym, www.onlinefandom.com and Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of Kansas
Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll is a great summary of just about everything one needs to know about Music 2.0, and where it's going. Read it and get smart!
Gerd Leonhard, music and media futurist, author of The Future of Music and CEO Sonific LLC
Jennings' book dives into the opportunities and challenges in discovery and technology today, and is a compelling read. Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll should be read by everyone in the online discovery industry and consumed cover-to-cover by iPod junkies looking for their next technology fix. Zac Johnson, AllMusic.com
Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll is a must read for those that are looking to understand — and more importantly, capitalize upon — the new tools, modes and mechanisms by which music and social influence are spread across the web.
Jason Herskowitz, MyStrands.com and formerly Director — Music Products at AOL
In one book, David Jennings deftly makes sense of chaotic and contradictory trends, flashy gimmicks and true innovations, and the closing gap between global online fandom and your flesh-and-blood friends who won't return your vinyl. Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll is an engaging and comprehensive tour of how we find music in the Internet age.
Chris Dahlen, Pitchforkmedia.com
[Apologies to Jason and Chris that their comments do not appear in the book — I don't know how this happened.]
Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll is a fascinating peek at what is going on under the hood of the Music 2.0 phenomenon. Engaging, accessible, and replete with vivid examples.
Dave Mazur
Reviews on the web
[The book] gives some good insights into how the whole music culture online works with different types of fans — excerpt from full review.
Struggling Muso blog
An insider overview of the variety of new digital media engaging young people and the forms of activity that are emerging from this engagement. A useful and streetwise introduction to the wider landscape — from Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning.
Charles Crook, Learning Science Research Unit, University of Nottingham (for Becta)
David Jennings draws on plenty of personal experience as well as interviews and systematic research to paint a picture of the way music will be changed as a result of social changes brought about by web technology. Even so, this is fundamentally an attempt to gaze into a very hazy future, and while I found in it some good inspiration, nothing in it felt especially certain — excerpt from full review.
Tim Martin
If you want to know how people find music online, read Net, Blogs And Rock 'n’ Roll by David Jennings. It’s by far the best book ever written on the subject. It’s brilliant, and you need to read it if you want to be were you audience are likely to be. David outlines the ways that communities form around musical artists and styles, and what the tools are online that are facilitating that. His book is vital reading for anyone working in the industry, and would make fascinating reading for anyone interested in any level of community formation online — excerpt from blog post about social media for musicians.
Steve Lawson, musician [Disclosure: Steve has become a friend of mine since the book came out — how could be not be when he says things like that?]
This excellent review of how we find music, and who is finding the new stuff paints a very clear picture of the shift in music paradigms in the age of the internet… This book is a must-read for anyone who loves music or is interested in information seeking — excerpt from full review.
Placebogirl, Google Book Search
This fabulous book looks at a problem with music that is endemic to the digital age: Having more choice than attention is available for. Jennings examines the different types of music user, and the ways in which they find things (and in some cases accrue social credit for being finders). Many of his observations are relevant to other forms of information seeking as well, notably seeking reading material, and so I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in real-world information seeking.
Dana McKay, LibraryThing
Yes I am a music fan, and yes I am a collector, but this book made me aware that today’s internet with Web 2.0 is offering me more opportunities in finding out about music I like — excerpt from full review.
MyMusicBaby blog
Jennings' writing is a little rough but anyone who wants to make money from digital content should read this book for a good overview of the industry they're in… those working in the music industry should pay attention to this book. Jennings' vision of the future is more realistic than theirs — excerpt from full review.
Shane Richmond, Daily Telegraph technology blogs
Jennings draws on his own experiences finding new music, along with interviews and anecdotes from listeners and industry experts… The book is packed with information, but he writes with wit and makes a potentially dry subject very readable, with an appeal beyond music fans — excerpt from full blog post.
Erin, Christchurch City Libraries blog.
Jennings, a full-time creature of the net, does not deny the popular delusions and madness of crowds that give some music releases undeserved success, but he comes up on page 64 with a practicable scheme for aggregating trusted criticism that should make him money, if someone takes him up on it — excerpt from full review.
Christopher Howse, The Spectator.
Given [the] scarcity of attention and virtually limitless choice of products, how do creators of these products and marketers help consumers discover them? In Net, Blogs and Rock 'n' Roll, Jennings explains in rich detail how discovery works in the digital age and makes predictions about the future of discovery… Net, Blogs and Rock 'n' Roll will help you understand the challenges of digital discovery and inspire you to become part of the solution — excerpt from full review.
La Shawn Barber, BlogCritics.
Net, Blogs & Rock 'n' Roll should undoubtedly sit alongside Chris Anderson's The Long Tail on the mandatory reading list of publishing students, but more importantly they should also feature in the stockings of every literary agent and publishing board member this Christmas — excerpt from full review.
Alex Lee,
The book describes where and how people discover music via the Internet very clearly and comprehensively. There are re-caps of the ideas and updates on the blog. A must-read for everyone with anything to do with music — excerpt from full review, translated from German [please correct this translation in the comments below if it is mistaken].
Udo Raaf, Tonspion.
This book is invaluable to anyone interested in the science of digital discovery and particularly so for anyone needing to harness that for any business application. Even those not too interested in the science of it will gain a lot from getting an in-depth look into a media revolution — excerpt from full review (subscription required).
Macky Drese, Brand Strategy — lead book review, November 2007.
Mike Prosceno, Social Media Today
Jennings is spot on when discussing how people discover music today, and in recognizing that it has become impossible for tastemaking to revert to monopoly held by the few. The book is rife with amusing metaphors and nuggets… It's a comprehensive and enjoyable read — excerpt from full review.
Eliot van Buskirk, Wired music blog
This is one of those books dedicated to explaining hip new cultural phenomena to big business, but behind the metaphors about cheese Jennings is thinking interestingly about a real problem: that of "digital discovery". How can people actually find new stuff they'd like in the vast electronic media ocean? — excerpt from full review.
Steven Poole, The Guardian
Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll should prove valuable to anyone interested in how people are discovering, and will discover, new music and other media as the digital age progresses. There's a lot of talk these days about celestial jukeboxes, long tails, folksonomies, the tearable web, "some rights reserved," and other modern concepts in arts, marketing, and commerce, but Jennings has pulled them neatly into a sensible, readable package dense with ideas and reflecting a very positive outlook — excerpt from full review.
Jon Sobel, BlogCritics magazine
The author, David Jennings, is a psychologist, and the book is about social networking in the sphere of music. Put the two together and you end up with a fascinating insight into the way different groups see themselves and behave. I'm finding it really interesting, and part of the reason is that David brings a different perspective to the Web 2.0 landscape from the one we're more used to in education. Studying people's behaviour is always interesting, and this book is no exception — excerpt from full review.
Terry Friedman, The Educational Technology Site
…it's an astoundingly good and easy read about music discovery in the age of the Internet, I consider myself fairly savvy about this sort of thing but the book proved that there was an awful lot more to music discovery than trawling through blogs, scouring (and scowling at) MySpace or listening to last.fm radio stations — excerpt from full comments
Andy Aldridge, Everything's Swirling [note: Andy was interviewed for, and features heavily in the book]
Sometimes it feels a bit like all of the Music 2.0 hype words thrown into a mixer, but beyond that there's lots of interesting information in the book about everything related to Music 2.0 — excerpt from full review
Elias Pampalk, MIR Research
I must recommend David's book as a fascinating insight into myriad of ways in which technology is changing the way that new artists are discovered and these discoveries shared, with the effect that the 'long tail' really is wagging the (major label) dog — excerpt from full review.
Clive Shepherd, Clive on Learning
Finally, not a review, but Peter Adediran Internet Lawyers cite the book several times in their feature on the music industry.
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