This is the story of a year in which the record business appeared to be firing on all cylinders, when commercially the CD was in its imperial period, bringing in staggering sums of money for the global record business. The good times - and they were phenomenal times, both culturally and financially - looked like they would never end for record labels.

Yet by December 1999, a bomb had been squarely set under their core business. All was to change with the arrival of digital. This is the true story and not simply the oft-repeated tale of an industry complacent and caught napping.