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filesharing
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This filesharing debate piques my interest most in the fetishization of a recording:
Alexander Payne - "Instead of being something that's actively sought out, enjoyed, and valued, it just becomes an item to collect."
Music originally was a performed moment and soon after, a memory. Though it was wrapped in its own language which was necessary to understand, with notation, music acqired something else and with recording something else again. In the 20th century, the paraphenalia of star image, etc. has added more baggage, though perhaps its arguable that was always part of music, just in lesser degrees.
>From early on, I knew in my heart part of my attraction to popular music was the process of collecting it -- it definitely taps
Obviously, a lot of stuff by Cage and his camp tried to get you to divorce yourself from this extraneous stuff and *listen* to *sounds* but there is an obvious catch-22 in that the "concept" pretty much is a required attachment. Captitalism teamed with popular culture demand dependance on the additions -- the media required for the the music machine to fuel itself with.
With filesharing, the pitfalls of copying files just for the sake of having folders and folders of artists that all look cool are definitely there (i wonder how much of this results from a "trophy case" mentality ), but my experiences with P2P definitely have allowed me to actually "hear" music with many cultural screens (hype, buzz, etc.) removed. Not that I don't enjoy when good album cover art directs my impressions for a song, but in playing a random selection of music I've downloaded and never heard before, bereft of any extras to account for, I definitely feel I react more objectively to it in some way.
Responding to the orignial discussion about copyright and the industry, I think I would be more on the argument against filesharing if I made money off my music, but I don't think I would stop downloading stuff. Primarily, the things I seek out are things I can't buy because they are out of print, or artists who I've been curious about, but have never heard. But when I discover something I really like and is available, I almost always get the CD. The mp3s are just not good enough somehow. I need to have the original recording, even more than the original artwork.
In the end, this argument comes along every ten years, with radio broadcasts, then with cassettes, then with cd-burners. The industry has always survived, and in fact grown bigger and bigger, probably because the increase in volume of media means music is more a part of everyone's lives. Deep down, I think many understand that the networks involved with these phenomena constitute the real "threats" for the big media corporations (BMCs). They are integral to the consumers' social contract. BMCs just want to make unquestionable hits, sure-fire investments. If they can control the way artists gain popularity, this is a cinch. The networks of independent djs, friends trading mixed-tapes, and now mp3 sharing (and webcasts) are essential to the social contract deciding which artists attain popularity and success without a fat cat saying -- this is your new favorite star with your new favorite hit record, because your favorite magazine, tv show and reviewer all say so. I think the math of an mp3 download = a lost sale is faulty. I have a limit to what I can spend on records and I would rather spend it wisely rather than put money back into what's been marketed the best.
The network of P2P filesharing really is more amazing than any preceeding it. You can find users with near-identical tastes or whole genres and quickly discover artists you would have not known about or thought to investigate otherwise. Going on musical de rives this way is quite addicting and rewarding. Like a friend of mine said, it's what surfing the net used to be like.
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deltadada
http://www.deltadada.com/
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