Re: [microsound] [lengthy] last.panopticon

[Scott <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Of course, the safe way to avoid the bad politics of Facebook,  
Last.fm, or whatever else, is to opt out, to not participate.

However, the important thing to recognize is that this business model  
is not an aberration - it's becoming the norm. The sort of opting out  
described in the guardian article is barely a sustainable practice  
now, and it the near future it likely won't be at all (w/o living in  
the woods anyway). The more productive discussion might be... given  
these systems (both individual businesses like Facebook and Last.fm,  
and their business practices as a general model that is continuously  
being re-implemented): how can we best connect ourselves to them? What  
can we use them for? How can we avoid contributing to the discouraging  
politics behind something like Myspace, Facebook? How can we make use  
of these structures for our particular ends, without ruining the  
world, our music scene, some dude in Turkeys music scene, or whatever  
else?

All of these models are, at their core, tied to advertising. Getting a  
Facebook account isn't putting too much money in Facebook's pocket.  
But, going to a film being advertised on Facebook is most definitely  
putting money in their pocket. Joining Last.fm and scrobbling track  
after track of Varèse isn't going to put a damn thing in their  
pockets, because they don't give a shit if you listen to Varèse - and  
they won't until Forced Exposure starts advertising or buying  
demographic data from them. That last scenario is certainly more  
believable now then it was 10 years ago, so perhaps that's one place  
to start the conversation.... And if a Justin Timberlake track turns  
up on my charts? Sony discovers there's a huge demographic of JT- 
loving Varèse fans? I buy music  at shows, from small local record  
labels, mail order - if I want JT, I pirate it or buy it used. I won't  
watch his appearance on SNL, and even if I did, I wouldn't buy  
anything advertised in the commercial breaks anyway.

Now, not to be naive.... there are a LOT of ways my actions as a  
consumer can probably benefit Sony's Varèse and Timberlake sublabel -  
I'm no economist, and these are huge, complex systems.... but that's  
why we have these sorts of threads on our experimental music mailing  
lists: to sort these things out, come up with some strategies,  
enlighten each other, etc. And, further, are there ways in which we  
can go beyond simply not supporting the nasty forces connected to  
MyFace.fm, but actually disrupt them? Can we use these systems to  
encourage others to engage in similar unhelpful / disruptive tactics?  
Or, hell, can we /trick/ others into it?

This email could easily be twice as long as this, but I've got dinner  
plans, and I'm curious what others have to say.

- Scott Carver

On Feb 1, 2008, at 1:18 PM, John Hopkins wrote:

> here's another take on Facebook --
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook
>
>
> John
>
>
>
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