Fortune’s Fool, By Fred Goodman; Simon
& Schuster, $36.00,
286 pages.

Behind every billionaire lies a story.

Take the Bronfman family, who got their start in the business of liquor sales during prohibition.

Fred Goodman’s book, which is actually a story about the music business and the purchase by Edgar Bronfman Jr. of Warner Music Group, paints a salacious tale of a family of heirs gunning to outdo their predecessors, ultimately dismantling an empire with about as much sentimentality as they showed in the selling of the Seagram building in 1978 for a cool $75 million.

“Everything at Seagram, no matter how singular or closely tied to the Bronfman family legend, was for sale at the right price,” writes Goodman.

There is no arguing that the music business is not what it used to be.

The confusion comes when a billionaire takes a (seemingly) losing bet on an industry to the tune of a few billion dollars, divesting some solid Dupont stock to boot. 

This book takes a close look at Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s efforts to remake the music industry as an Internet-friendly business, including controversial artist agreements that take revenue cuts from streams formerly exclusive to the artists.

Craig Lund, a director with the staffing firm Marketers on Demand, can be reached at craig.lund@marketerson-demand.com