Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy - (Anthem Impact in Music Business, Technology and Culture) by David Arditi (Paperback)

About the Book

When people develop technologies to distribute music, record labels act like it will destroy music. This book shows these narratives are about reconfiguring power.

Book Synopsis

Examines how the recording industry uses the "piracy panic narrative" to position itself as a victim of new technologies, while obscuring the industry's exploitation of musicians and lobbying for policies that prioritize its profits.

The gramophone was thought to be perverse because it allowed people to listen to music on their own. Rock 'n' Roll was the devil's music. Home taping supposedly killed music. Copyright piracy is not a victimless crime. Downloading music is stealing. Spotify doesn't adequately pay artists. YouTube remuneration creates a value gap for artists. Mp3s make music sound flat. TikTok shortens songs. AI steals ideas.
With each new music distribution technology, the powerful corporate interests of the moment try to make people afraid to use it. In Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy: From Taping to Napster to TikTok, Dr. David Arditi examines how the major record labels single-out new technologies as if they will bring an end to recorded music. They use what he calls the "piracy panic narrative"--a narrative in which new technologies threaten the very existence of recorded music. The piracy panic narrative is a rhetorical construct that helps to hide the material reality of the recording industry by positioning major record labels and their recording artists as the victims of widespread crime in the form of piracy.
Now, divorced from piracy, the recording industry continues to use the panic narrative to dissuade fans from specific practices and to lobby the government for particular policies. Each time, they use the narrative to change public sentiment, the law, and policy to strengthen their profits. It works because fans feel a connection with their favorite artists. Fans want their artists to be paid a fair wage. But at every moment what gets ignored is labels are the primary exploiter of musicians. Asking why YouTube underpays artists is the wrong question because streaming platforms pay labels. The question that never gets asked: why don't labels pay artists a livable wage?

Review Quotes

"Big Music never lets a serious crisis go to waste. This compelling history of corporate storytelling guides us through four decades of recorded music's moral panics. With characteristic iconoclasm, and an analytic scalpel that cuts through industry myth, Arditi reveals how fears are weaponized to manage transformation." --Toby Bennett, Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture and Organization, School of Media and Communications, University of Westminster, UK; Author of Corporate Life in the Digital Music Industry: Remaking the Major Record Label from the Inside Out.

"In this book, David Arditi thoroughly excoriates the panic narratives emanating from the major music companies. In doing so, he reveals how these loud voices use their power to distract music fans from what is really going on, and what is really happening is that musicians continue to be grossly underpaid for their musical labour. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of music." --Dr. Sally Anne Gross, University of Westminster, Harrow Campus, UK.

"This book expertly traces the recent history of perceived threats to the recorded music industry, from home taping in the 1980s to the recent debates around AI. It challenges embedded narratives on copyright and ownership, while also encouraging discussion of the legal terminology employed in public discourse." --James Hannam, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Music Business, Southampton Solent University, UK.

About the Author

Dr. David Arditi is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington where he serves as the director of the Center for Theory.