// posted by Greg // 04.01.2008 at 4:55 pm //

The myth of the democratization of music

One serious cause of confusion regarding the internet and democracy is the conflation between liberal democratic freedom and market freedom. One area that has been revolutionized by the growth of the internet has been the recording industry. The industry is itself still reeling from the gross errors in judgment and misguided, short sighted business practices undertaken by the major record labels culminating in the shut down of napster. As a side note, I refuse to pay money for a single song made by Metallica. I also refuse to listen to their music on the radio, TV, or web.

Jeff Price has written a very nice article outlining the broad changes that the internet has brought to the music business. It’s done away with the need for brick and mortar stores, it’s created a system of cheap distribution, and new technology has made it possible for upstart musicians to record their music on the cheap. This is all well and good but I can’t see how Mr. Price makes the analogy to democracy. He writes,

“Subjectivity and filters have been removed. All music can be discovered, downloaded, shared, promoted, heard and bought directly by the audience itself. It is truly the democratization of an industry.”

This is NOT democracy, this is the opening of a formally closed market.

This confusion of market liberation and democratization is terribly misleading when we try to decide if the internet is a tool for democratic change. Want to see the real evidence for democratization? University networks have blocked off web IP addresses and students web logs have been dumped to expose file sharing. The fact that RIAA pressure can curb access on certain networks should be a warning sign that the net can be censored; the dumping of weblogs shows not just a lack of privacy but an frightening display of surveillance power. Finally, let’s keep in mind that all this is to protect a few large companies represented by the RIAA. What happens when the witch hunt is far more dangerous (or threatening) than some college student who wants a copy My Humps?

In short, the ongoing music industry saga gives us a further opportunity to critically examine the internet as a tool for democratization. Yes, the internet has freed the market from corporate control and has given everyone the opportunity to distribute their music to a huge market. But that is not democratization, that is market liberation. The RIAA with the help of the state and federal government and university administrators have shown us a far more interesting and frightening use for the internet, surveillance.

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