Britain makes more money from music than from its car industry. In the United States the core copyright industries achieved foreign sales and exports of $60.18 billion - a figure which surpasses, for the first time, every other export sector, including automobiles, agriculture and aircraft. Howkins sets out to explore how we can harness creativity and the industry it sustains to our common interests. This book is not about information and the information society. It is about more basic matters, what we humans want and what we are good at.