"Rip, Mix, Burn!"

(1) Music Industry, in need of a cultural turn.
(2) P2P downloading develops new love affairs with music..

This past week, we explored a topic that significantly affects our modern digital culture. As university students, and as media scholars, the topic of piracy lends a hand to a rich and passionate arena for discussion. With the development and recent global explosion of digital technology, control over information and cultural content has been severely displaced from producers to consumers. Music, film, video games and software along with almost any type of digitalized information, have ultimately been converted into something that can be ‘freely’ ‘shared’ on a global scale. Essentially, new technologies initiated by the internet, have allowed mass amounts of people around the world, to engage in the unauthorized reproduction and circulation of cultural and media products. The phenomenon of digital piracy, the stealing of digital information, has severely affected many cultural industries especially those involved in music and film.
This weeks readings in particular, proved to be very constructive. Each article contributed to expanding my current knowledge and understanding of a number of issues that greatly affect my generation of young adults. Specifically, music piracy is an issue that is central to my role as an avid music consumer. As bad as it might be to admit, I frequently engage in music piracy, downloading and sharing songs and albums free from the constraints of monetary expense. Out of the three articles assigned, I tend to favor the article by Ian Condry, entitled, “Cultures of Music Piracy” which focused on an ethnographic comparison of the US and Japan. Condry’s article was very thought provoking as he took an approach to the topic of music piracy in a way that I was not quite expecting. What was most interesting to me was how he discussed solving the issue, or the possible ways he thought would be most influential. He emphasized the struggles of protecting digital content these days and basically stated that he did not think stricter technologies would help resolve the issues of piracy. I definitely agree. Given the strength of our global network and the widening range of storage and transferring technologies, it seems more than unlikely that technology is the answer to combat a technological problem. What Condry emphasized, which really got me thinking, was whether or not the solution could be cultural. Could piracy be solved by some sort of cultural intervention or coerced cultural transformation? Can the industry essentially teach respect for property? I greatly believe this to be so, however the likelihood of this happening anytime soon, given its omnipresence and global scale, is far from realistic. Despite this justified pessimism, I think that this article provides a very informative review, outlining a number of ways that we can understand, and try to battle, the issue of music piracy (or at the very least, provide another way of looking at potential ways to counter some of its effects).
When looking at Japan in comparison to the US, Condry briefly discussed the effects that certain marketing techniques had on the falling numbers in CD sales and rising numbers in music piracy (Condry 2004). He mentioned that the way the music industry was promoting their products and the relationships they were developing was quite detrimental to their cause. Modern singers and bands have a tendency to be marketed to develop fan relationships with their songs, rather than with themselves as artists or individuals. With the overabundance of tie- ins with television commercials, and prime time dramas, featuring certain hit singles for example, audiences are led to associate mainly with that one song rather than with the band or singer (Condry 2004). Consumers then desire the song, not the full album and therefore download or burn that one song. And, the times they do decide to buy the album, they usually regret it, because the rest of the album is not what they were expecting, having heard only that one song. Condry articulated; instead of focusing on the hit songs and marketing them in such a way, they need to focus on building relationships between the fans and the artists (Condry 2004). Essentially, as a culture, consumers need to be taught that the music is not a simple commodity, rather music is a piece of the artist or groups soul. This might create an increased level of respect for the music and for the artists, which in turn might inhibit future piracy.
I specifically thought this was quite relevant to the way that music is viewed and consumed in Canada and the US. As a music consumer, I view most artists and bands, along with their music, as mere commodities, rarely viewing them as anything else (marketing has definitely contributed to this view). Although this type of a suggestion is by no means a solution to the pervasive problem of music piracy, I think it provides a way of looking at the problem that I think is crucial to ever improving it. I believe the problem cannot be remedied by stricter regulations, enforced government policies or increased taxation. I believe the problem is, like Codry says, cultural, and therefore can only be solved by instilling a different cultural mindset. By encouraging a variety of cultural values and attitudes associated with music, via marketing etc, I think that the industry can help redirect the current route that music piracy is taking.
Although I am ashamed of participating in the pirating of music, mainly using P2P’s, I do believe it to be very detrimental to the music industry in a number of ways. It obviously decreases music sales, disrupts the flow of music from the producer to the consumer, and generally creates many international hard-feelings and disputes, like the ones evident in the issue of Pirate Bay. However, given the number of negative implications associated with music piracy and P2P downloads, mainly on the side of the music industry, I do feel there is one major benefit. As Condry mentioned at the end of his article, P2P downloads develop new love affairs with music (Condry 2004). Although the piracy of music, via P2P downloading networks for example, provides an arena where most of the music industry is hindered, it also provides an arena where independent bands and artists can be heard and even flourish. The music industry is dominated by a select few of major players, making it incredibly hard for local, indigenous or indie artists to be heard on a large scale. P2P downloading and the copying and widespread distribution that new technologies provide, are a godsend to many artists that would otherwise only be heard on a remote scale. Independent music labels and artists are given the opportunity to find a place within the music market giving them an even greater probability of becoming mainstream and gaining popularity. We always talk about how cultural products are being exploited with these new technologies, and the emergence of indie artists via P2P networks proves this idea otherwise, as these independents prove to actually broaden the volume of cultural production rather than limit it.
A good example of a local indie label that supports and utilizes P2P sharing would be the Toronto-based Underground Operations. Underground Operations is, “an independent record label that puts out socially conscious, subversively political, and/or just strong hearted music, records, & art” (Underground Operations 2005). The label is home to six different bands and concentrates on helping the bands succeed in the local market. (If anyone cares: they often play shows in Toronto at smaller venues such as “El Mocambo” or “The Bovine Sex Club,” and once a year they embark on an Eastern Canadian Tour labeled the “Unity Tour” (Underground Operations 2005). The bands that Underground Operations supports strongly rely on music ‘piracy’, in a sense, for the distribution and successful dissemination of their music. Without these types of technologies, their music would essentially become unaccessible and unheard to many of their fans nationwide.
I guess my goal was to conclude my blog by illustrating the cultural benefits to music piracy, because I know there are so many drawbacks. Overall, I thought this week's lecture material and assigned articles lead to an exciting topic of exploration, a topic in my opinion, that could have been given more attention.



Condry, Ian (2004). ‘Cultures of Music Piracy: An Ethnographic Comparison of the US and Japan’. International Journal of
Cultural Studies, 7 (3): 343-363.

Underground Operations. “Artists.” Underground Operations Official Website. 2005.
20 March 2008 < http://www.undergroundoperations.com/artists>.