Hey, you! Yes, you—with the earbuds. Want to know how your music got to you? And why it costs so little? Download this audiobook and listen. It’s a fascinating story of the criminals—um, forward thinkers— who took down the record companies by pirating music and giving it away for free. Then they got busted. No worries though—you’re legal. Anyway, you’d think that a book that explains such an earth-shattering economic change could get some professional narration. Author Stephen Witt does what author-narrators do best, and that’s to bring passion and unassailable subject knowledge to their performances. But Witt also brings the word-dropping, uneven pacing, and too-fast reading pitfalls that new narrators exhibit. He improves as the book moves along, and it’s still worth a listen, but a more experienced storyteller would have been a better choice.
Pub Date: 2015
Duration: 9 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780698402980
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The readers can't compensate for the unbearably pompous prose style of this extended parable about corporate politics and strategy.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Golden Voice narrator Cassandra Campbell explores Mattel's dark side in this unauthorized history that exposes spying, copyright infringement, and the true origins of Barbie. Hitt's investigative reporting asserts that Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler, was often ruthless. Handler claimed that the inspiration for Barbie came from her daughter, but Barbie was a near-identical copy of a German doll that was created four years prior to Barbie's debut. Hitt argues that while Handler faced sexism herself, she chose corporate profit over supporting women and minorities. Campbell invokes emotion where appropriate, as when she uses a barbed tone for Handler's remarks about people she hated and a flat voice to capture her matter-of-fact, uncaring attitude. Campbell's pace and tone let the writing shine.
Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 12 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781797193847
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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