Childs Play

Recently I spent some time with a group of children who consistently and for a period of time no creator should endure, played the mimicking game in which they repeated all of my phrases and in some cases my body language.

To begin with I ignored what was happening hoping that it would end on its own without further comment. As the person in the hot seat I was focused on more important things than the repetition of my language. However as time went on it became something more along the lines of annoyance. I found myself starting to wonder about why it was that they found this game so rewarding. Later, after another extended period of time, I became more or less used to the repetition and started to play a long a little.

This experience led me to think about cover versions – I jokingly said on more than one occasion that they were a poor cover version and made reference to the TISM song ‘Thou shalt not Britney’. The lack of original composition, the misinterpretation and misuse of my language was an interesting experience to analyse.

In Australia, unlike the United States, one must still seek a license in order to cover an original song. With limited fair dealing provisions, none of which are clearly stated to provide a solid basis on which to adapt a song readily, cover versions and samples both require legal assistance to ensure one does not breach copyright law. Of course, in the United States a license is automatically granted on the payment of a set royalty for cover versions, whereas samples require a license – a situation that, like Australia, more commonly than not, requires legal assistance. Precedent with respect to samples in the United States at this point fails to adequately accommodate creators wishing to build on the works of others under the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act. Parody and satire are defences in both countries that fall within the lawful reuse of expression but the boundaries are not clear.

And so here I am with this group of children, holding them out at arms length and wondering why this would be such a compelling game. Often people refer to cover versions as an easy way to establish a new act. The repetition or “modernisation” of a song already known to the public seems to allow older audience members to relate to new artists by renewing a connection from the past thus emulating an emotional context established at an earlier time. But here the repetition by these children was immediate, these children were in fact teasing me with my own language – could this be a ‘political’ use of my speech? (Indeed it was not just for fun but was to undermine my position in relation to them and my authority).

I have only around 1000 songs on my iPod, most of which I accumulated whilst a presenter of a political music program on community radio called ‘Music with a Message’. Despite having such a small collection of songs (I believe the average iPod user holds around 3 times this amount or more) I have some pairs of songs. I have a Red Gum Song titled ‘I was only 19’ from the 1980s which refers to the Vietnam war as well as a modern version of the same song by The Herd. Furthermore I have the Paul Kelly song ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ also from the 1980s as well as an adapted version of this song by a number of artists that was released in support of the Stolen Generation in 2008. Finally I have ‘The Guns of Brixton’ by the Clash, again from the 1980s, and have tried to purchase ‘The Guns of Brooklyn’ by Bliss and Esso (so far without luck). This is the political re-use of music.

It seems to me that there is a continuum with respect to the copying of expression. At one end there is the sample, followed by the cover version, then adaptations, transformative uses, and finally parody and satire. Like shades of white to black with much grey in the middle, the law attempts to dissect and categorise without clarity unless one is at the polar ends of the continuum. Moral rights with respect to non derogatory treatment further intensify the legal complexities in Australia while in the United States these rights do not exist.

The main difference between the children in this instance and follow on creators is the intention with which the copying takes place. In my experience I was the person that they sought to undermine whilst for follow on creators, particularly with respect to political music, the intention is to educate or motivate a third party, namely an external audience. What in one instance may be best referred to as ‘childs play’ by analogy translates into reiteration and iteration with a view to changing people and the world. The original creators, when they have a choice, my not wish to allow a repetition of their expression but in some respects should see it more as a complement rather than as a personal attack.

The Chinese Ministry of Cultural Censorship.

I was reading with despondency today an article by Digital Music News which states that the Chinese government is going to require that all music hosted off shore but accessible from within China be approved by the Chinese Ministry of Culture before beign digitally distributed.

According to MacWorld (quoting the Wall Street Journal): "Online music providers will have to submit to the Ministry of Culture the lyrics of each foreign song, translated into Chinese, along with evidence proving they have permission from the copyright owners to sell and distribute the songs..."

This does not reconcile well with USA calls for strong piracy controls from within the country and indeed smells a lot like using piracy as an opportunity to further control the messages conveyed to the people.

Whilst one cannot second guess what criteria will be applied in determining the suitability of songs, it may be questioned that such a scheme could be used to prevent the reception of songs with overt political characteristics. Other songs may nonetheless be used in a political way but songs with clear political sentiments may be directly at risk.

In August last year, the Art of Peace Foundation released an album titled Songs of Tibet with its release coinciding with the Beijing Olympic Games. The Chinese government responded by blocking access to iTunes for a short period of time.

Similarly, it was reported in March 2008 that following a Bjork concert in which she made a direct link between her song ‘Declare Independence’ and the struggle for freedom in Tibet, Chinese officials suggested that in the future all foreign artists would be screened prior to gaining entry to the country.

This essentially opens the door to the further regulation of free speech in China. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression, whilst not exactly the same, are arguably so closely related as to come within the ambit of the same fundamental human right. Expression concerns not that which is simply spoken but that which is expressed in other ways – in this case music – but in other examples recognised by western legal systems, expression has been seen to encompass a wide range of communicative activities including those taking a physical form.

In Levy v Victoria [1997] HCA 31 Brennan CJ stated (at page 5):

Speech is the chief vehicle by which ideas about government and political are communicated. Hence it is natural to regard the freedom of communication about government and political implied in the constitution as a freedom of speech. But actions as well as words can communicate ideas. In the United States where “freedom of speech” is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, non-verbal activity which expresses ideas may be protected as a form of speech. Thus a “protest by silent and reproachful presence” or by a burning of the flag of the United States have been held to be protected by the First Amendment....

The freedom of discussion implied in the Constitution of the Commonwealth, unlike the subject of protection under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, does not require consideration of the connotation of “speech” or of the conduct which might be thought to constitute a form of speech. The implication denies legislative or executive power to restrict the freedom of communication about the government or politics of the Commonwealth, whatever be the form of communication, unless the restriction is imposed to fulfil a legitimate purpose and the restriction is appropriate and adapted to the fulfilment of that purpose. In principle, therefore, non-verbal conduct which is capable of communicating an idea about the government or politics of the Commonwealth and which is intended to do so may be immune from legislative or executive restriction so far as that immunity is needed to preserve the system of representative and responsible government that the Constitution prescribes.

Music with overt political characteristics is clearly a form of speech or expression that comes within the globally recognised standard of human rights and yet in this case the Chinese government appear to be restricting the opportunities for its reception by attempting to control what comes into the country. Music of this nature has the ability to empower, educate and mobilise citizens often to address injustices and to create awareness of the potential for, and prevent, future disasters. However, here the Chinese government is seeking to restrict access to music, under the guise of piracy prevention, for its own political purposes which include restricting the access of its citizens to information about current events.

As I wrote in the paper I presented to the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Liverpool earlier this year, ‘moral progress is a part of social progress and refers to changing attitudes to concepts such as freedom, equality, justice and truth. Social and moral progress depend heavily on knowledge and are affected (and effected) by the production and reception of information.’ (Bierstedt, 282). If China censors music by limiting the messages that citizens can receive, there will inevitably be a restriction to social progress and perhaps even retrogression.

Further Reading
Digital Music News, Instead of Anti-Piracy, China Offers Music Censorship... (9 September 2009) <http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/090809china> at 10 September 2009

MacWorldUK, China tightens rules for online music providers (7 September 2009) <http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=27099> at 10 September 2009

The Register, iTunes, and Sting, banned from China (22 August 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/22/itunes_blocked_china_tibet/> at 28 August 2008

The Register, China pardons iTunes (but not Sting) (26 August 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/26/china_pardons_itunes/> at 28 August 2008

TechDirt, China Realizes It Doesn't Need To Block All Of iTunes (26 August 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080825/2219562089.shtml> at 28 August 2008

Digital Music News, iTunes Reinstated In China... Tibet Album Now Included (27 August 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/082608ituneschina> at 28 August 2008

TechDirt, China Blocks iTunes After Olympic Athletes Download Pro-Tibetan Music (21 August 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080821/0312442052.shtml> at 25 August 2008

guardian.co.uk, China blocks iTunes music store (21 August 2008) <http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/21/china.blocks.itunes> at 25 August 2008

Digital Music News, Will the Ban Boost Sales? Tibet Album Pushes Past 10,000 (22 August 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/082108tibet> at 25 August 2008

Digital Music News, Great Firewall Growls: China Blocks iTunes Access (21 August 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/082008itunes> at 22 August 2008

The Age, iTunes blocked in China after protest stunt (21 August 2008) <http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/itunes-blocked-in-china-after-protest-stunt/2008/08/20/1219262358153.html> at 22 August 2008

OpenContentAustralia, Bjork in China (11 March 2008) http://ocarr.blogspot.com/2008/03/bjork-in-china.html> at 10 September 2009

Bierstedt, Robert. 1974. Power and Progress McGraw Hill, New York

Free Music Archive.

I am a few days from really being back on this space but thought to let you know about the Free Music Archive. This site was started by WFMU, a freeform radio station in the United States.

The latest Creative Commons newsletter advises that the site was launched in April 2009. It hosts tracks available as free downloads using a number of licenses including Creative Commons. Users can download from a catalogue of 8,659 tracks (it was launched with 5,000 songs).

The site looks good but has some way to go in terms of growth and development. Nine thousand tracks is a good start but small compared to other sites such as Jamendo which, at present, hosts some 20,478 albums.

Like Jamendo, the Free Music Archive seeks to embrace new business models. It is intended that links will be provided enabling users to buy the full album and/or giving users the option of tipping an artist by making a deposit to the artists’ PayPal account (from what I can see these are not yet in place). Artist profiles also include tourdates allowing fans to both enjoy their art and support creators/performers by attending concerts.

Another good thing about the site is the album/track descriptions - these are much more detailed than what is found on many other sites including iTunes, eMusic and file sharing networks. The search function allows for key word searching of both the descriptions and the tracks which is a big improvement in terms of the architecture needed to help listeners find political music. One could well imagine the power of combing this design attribute with a much larger catalogue.

This site is in its infancy but is one to watch in the future.Take a look around and be exposed to some new independent artists. But be careful first to check that the license conditions permit uses that suit your needs.

More Information
Free Music Archive <http://freemusicarchive.org/>

Jamendo <http://www.jamendo.com/en/>

Spaces and Places.

Last night I had a very enjoyable dinner with friends at the 20,000 Cows Restaurant in Lismore, NSW and thought to write a little about the analogy between this place and the current space for political music.

20,000 Cows is a quaint little restaurant outside of the CBD. It is housed in an old petrol station with an odd, triangular shaped, small building and a small court yard. Inside the walls are decorated with a range of unique and hand made art works, the curtains are all different colours, there are lanterns, candles on the table and a collection of odd pieces of furniture. There is a potbelly stove made out of an old beer keg, panels of melted glass and a book on Ghandi on the wall.

The food which is absolutely beautiful is Middle Eastern and Indian vegan/vegetarian and the philosophy of the proprietor, Murray Vilkelis, is based on animal rights and respect for other living beings. Some people eat around coffee tables while sitting on lounges, others at tables with mismatching chairs.

The atmosphere is fantastic – there are people from all backgrounds including those from non mainstream and mainstream cultures. It serves as a meeting place for many that appreciate the ideological basis of the ‘business’ and it serves as a place where people from outside that culture can be comfortable and become accustom to alternative approaches.

I say ideological basis of the ‘business’ because while there are recommended prices, these are optional –the menu states that these are suggested prices.

It was a great evening and I will be certain to return many more times however it was not without its hiccups. It was very busy with a Gem Festival nearby attracting a large number of people, this led to some cramping with people squashed together in small spaces and the high demand on the staff led to some delays in service and some confusion about meals.

This was really of a secondary concern to my friends and I, and I only raise it because I was thinking at the time what a great analogy this place was for the current space of political music in the digital environment.

Political music is unique and at present it suffers from a small area in which to thrive. The artists congregate in what little architecture is available to them which is beneficial because of its intimacy and concentration, however the spaces have not grown to accommodate new creators, they have not expanded enough to house everyone comfortably and in a way that provides the greatest level of service. The distribution system (serving staff) are limited in effectiveness because of the lack of expansion and money to do more.

The business appears to be worthwhile from an economic perspective however I was not the one to pay the bill so I cannot say from personal experience whether social norms are enough to ensure that the costs are covered. At a guess I would say that most people that go there are ethically motivated enough to pay the recommended price but am sure that on occasion those that can’t don’t, and sometimes those that can, do not either. The generosity of the proprietor is both what attracts people to try new experiences but at the same time does not of itself ensure or guarantee that the business will continue without financial concerns. As I have noted recently, Trent Reznor estimates that only around 18% of consumers paid to access his bands music when a similar business model was used.

The ideological basis of the restaurant is both an attraction to those that appreciate alternative perspectives, catering (pun intended) to their desire for integtrity and respect. For others, perhaps it is something that does the opposite. It is the same for political music - not everyone who is exposed to it goes on to appreciate its true value.

I didn’t get to eat all that I ordered and some friends ate another person’s meal because of the lack of resources (serving staff per customer) – this is a direct parallel to those of us that want more political music but cannot find it.

There were delays in getting our meals (lack of cooks = lack of artists) but the uniqueness of the food was worth waiting for – it takes time to prepare something that is not generic and mass produced.

And there were things that were not welcome, such as the consumption of meat from other sources on the premises and smoking – this relates to the notion that non dedicated spaces for political expression dilute its potency and ability to get its message across.

As I said, it was a wonderful and very enjoyable evening – we all had a great time and please don’t take this as a criticism of the restaurant. This is merely me being observational and using a real space example as an illustration of what is taking place on the internet.

I had been to this restaurant some 10 or more years ago and never saw it in this way. If you ever have the chance, go, and see for yourself how special cultures express themselves and think a little of how much better the world would be if there were more chances for it to do so.

More Information

Wolf & Lamb, Wolf and Lamb: Animal Free Cooking (7th ed, 2002) <http://lis.net.au/marijonas/WOLF01.html#F200> at 17 May 2009

Your Restaurant, 20,000 Cows (2009)
<http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/20000_cows/> at 17 May 2009

The Importance of Political Music.

As I start to condense some 8,500 words into four pages for my IASPM presentation I have been thinking a lot about the relative importance of political music. As you should know by now, my doctorate concerns the conditions that will ensure it’s production and reception in the digital environment and maximising the opportunities for it to act as an agent of social change. However in recent times it has become apparent that while this is a noble and valuable pursuit, it takes place in a world that in fact needs many forms of culture including those that I have tended to refer to as ‘superficial’ or ‘distracting’.

Someone asked me recently what music has had the most impact on my life and in answering, I, without hesitating, said that the most obvious music has been that with a strong message about personal strength and courage. Even last week, in the process of confronting some personal challenges, I walked around with a Britney Spears song in my head with the lyrics ‘I’m stronger than yesterday’. Yet in my intellectual pursuits I have typically distanced myself from this form of culture. Indeed there are many moments in my life when I have turned to non political music for comfort, support and fun. Just today I tried to purchase the new Hilltop Hoods CD. It has not been released yet, but the intention was to use it as a new form of escapism – to listen to something that I could enjoy but not on a purely intellectual level. [I will not download it but am cursing the fact that I can hear it on the radio but not purchase it for another month! Damn those release dates.]

As a politically aware person it can be hard for me to actually indentify the impact this form of culture has had on me – since becoming heavily immersed in the study of these types of songs I have made some changes to my personal behaviour including taking greater responsibility for the environment (buying carbon credits when I could, being more diligent about recycling, walking rather than driving when I can), being more aware of and more compassionate for the disadvantaged and marginalised and more in tune with the political events that are taking place in the world. But when the impact is micro not macro, it can be more subtle and difficult to see. Aside from the internet censorship campaign in Australia I cannot claim to have become more overtly involved in politics. Nonetheless the changes are there and the music has certainly been part of making that happen.

But political music is just one form of culture that has produced changes in my personal behaviour and approach to life. When I want to dance (much to the world’s regret) I listen to dance music, techno and hip hop. When I am feeling down I listen to music that has an uplifting message – one of my favourites is Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’. When I want to relax I listen to classical music or instrumental works (I would not be here today without Deep Forest). And so it becomes clear to me that in my enthusiasm for advocating the conditions for protest music that perhaps I am guilty of being dogmatic. There is a time and a place for all forms of culture – just so long as I am not the only one that remembers that.

Some are aware of my lack of appreciation for organised sports, indeed I commonly refer to football as a form of distraction. Having grown up in a city that stops for sport I became very frustrated by what I considered to be the distraction of the masses. Why, I would ask, do people devote so much time and energy to watching a group of men run around, often in the rain, after a piece of stuffed leather when so much of the world is in a state of crisis? And as a parallel I become frustrated with people that listen only to superficial and distracting music (not that those terms are appropriate). Indeed it is not the football game or the culture of football that I disagree with; it is not the love songs and the dance songs themselves that I don’t appreciate; it is a world which does not allow space for more that bothers me.

One perspective is that people devote themselves to football or listen to music that ‘entertains’ rather than ‘educates’ because they need to. The world is in a state of crisis, but so are many people in their day to day lives. Even if they are not in crisis as such, then they are under pressure from other places whether that be in the workplace, economic, from society itself, from their friends or family or a number of other sources, and they need an outlet. They need to express their feelings and be part of something that does not place demands on them and provides them with a sense of community and security. Political music can do this to a certain extent but it has another motive as well. Popular music which speaks of emotions and which creates a sense of fun and enjoyment does not place people under these demands; it simply allows people to feel.

I was asked recently what I would do to address some of the issues with disadvantaged youth and my answer was immerse them in music and I was clear that it did not matter what type of music or what involvement they had – whether that be to learn an instrument, play in a band, be a radio presenter, go to concerts or just download and share with their friends as much music as they could. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly much of the problems associated with kids stems from their use of time. If they are busy they are far less likely to get into trouble. The second part to this is that music is an outlet – it is a form of expression that is universal (second perhaps only to the smile) it is something that they can share with others and have fun with in the process. It can help them to overcome their personal difficulties, help them to rationalise the world and help them to stay on track.

And so I need to change my approach – political music is important but it is not more important, it is just as important. Without the emotional, without the physical, we are not capable of the intellectual.

One of the sentences in my IASPM paper that I may need to reword to be more diplomatic suggests that emotive and dance music will be produced under almost any conditions because the social function is so well engrained and so well established. Perhaps this is true but only to a certain degree. Just like political music, there remains conditions under which better emotive and dance music will be created. A professional sector of creators needs to be sustained not just to challenge the status quo on a macro level but to ensure that individuals on a micro level have the peace of mind and strength to get over their personal challenges, to enjoy life and can be in a position to contribute to the wider social issues of our time.

I accept that we cannot have one unless we have the other. They are interconnected and not separate. What happens to one effects/affects the other.

Forgive me for just focussing on the political. From now on I will do so in a less dismissive way.

In the digital environment, just as in real space, we suffer from noise. Life is a constant process of clustering and filtering. Trying to group things together and sort them from others. Unlike popular music which already has many architectures and spaces in which this can occur, much more needs to be done to ensure that political music too has a space. It has not gone unnoticed to me that my local club has started to play a lot more political music. As someone who has already been exposed to this, consumes it and uses it, the reception is welcome. But it is partly ineffective for others. While they might hear it and sometimes even recognise it, they cannot connect with it on a level that converts that exposure all the way through to use. There needs to be a forum. There needs to be space and it needs to be appropriate to be effective.

In the digital environment we have the space for the popular, now it is time to create the space for the political.


__________________

I have three phrases I use to describe my learning process. There are the ‘book ends’ where I find the start and the end that hold the middle together. There is the perfect circle, where I can trace something to find its holistic presence. This is what I would call a ‘corner’ because it changes my direction. I have turned it. Thank you.

IASPM International Conference

Late last year I received an offer to present my paper 'The Evolution of Culture: Is Political Music Still Being Heard?' at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music's biennial conference in Liverpool in July this year.

I submitted an abstract of my paper to Carlo Nardi, the convenor of the conference theme relating to Popular Music and Technology in a Historical Context. This section of the conference will consider the 'technological impacts upon popular music practices, including questions from cultural, aesthetic, ideological, economic, sociological, historical, legal or musicological perspectives'.

This is an exciting opportunity and I am delighted to be attending the conference. There is not much information about the conference on their website at the moment but that should change very soon so take a look if you are interested: IASPM International Conference. You can read about the other conference themes here.

Version 2: Is Political Music Still Being Heard?

Here are links to the latest version of my presentation titled, 'The Evolution of Culture: Is Political Music Still Being Heard?'.

My thinking on the topic has progressed since the first draft was prepared and I learnt a lot from the first time I presented it. It is not often that I have the opportunity to discuss these issues with people - I find that doing so helps me to clarify my views and understanding - it is something I would really like to do a lot more often.


S. Hawkins, The Evolution of Culture: Is Political Music Still Being Heard v2.0 (15 October 2008)
<http://www.filefactory.com/file/4712b3/n/SHawkins_Political_Music_Presentation_mp3> at 15 October 2008

S. Hawkins, The Evolution of Culture: Is Political Music Still Being Heard v2.0 Bibliography (15 October 2008) <http://www.filefactory.com/file/874e81/n/Bibliography_to_Draft_Presentation_The_Evolution_of_Culture_20080818_doc> at 15 October 2008

[Scroll down the page and select 'Download with File Factory Basic']

Specific Strategies

Toward the end of my presentation on whether political music is still being heard I raise five specific strategies that can be employed which will enhance the reception of political music.

These include:

Firstly, allowing dedicated space on digital music store sites for music with a social justice, environmental or political nature. This could be in the form of feature artists but I don’t think this is the most effective way of enhancing the reception of this form of culture.

Rather I propose combining the power of web 2.0 technologies such as blogs or wikis to allow users to develop themes therefore incorporating a range of styles and songs and compiling them together to provide more comprehensive access to political music. By bringing together the songs, their context and linking with other tracks that refer to the same issues, it is possible to remove the additional steps needed to research, find and buy political music.

eMusic and Yahoo have recently taken steps to incorporate Wikipedia pages and YouTube videos into their music sites, however from what I have read this appears to be limited to artist biographies rather than providing the context in which political songs were written or linking songs of a similar kind together.

Amazon and IMDB have also recently launched a music focused wiki called SoundUnwound that anyone can edit. While integrating YouTube videos, from the beta version of the site it seems that this will also be artist specific.

Secondly, discussion forums could also be linked to digital music stores to encourage greater participation in the discourse of political music. By increasing the discussion around songs of this nature a greater level of peer production can be achieved providing a context and a forum in which to express personal perspectives on the music. Many lyrics sites provide an opportunity to discuss the interpretation of political songs but are removed from the music.

Thirdly, search engines could also be developed which can search lyrics or imbedded tags to provide increased access to oppositional culture. This would enable users to search for themes rather than just genres or artists and provide results based on content.

Yahoo has recently begun integrating full length streams to its standard search engine but the search parameters are limited to artist names and song titles. Up to 25 tracks can be streamed once each in a one month period.

Fourthly, grass roots political campaigns should be entitled to link to and use political music on their websites. Provided this was for registered charities or incorporated associations (genuine non profits) there should be no impediments to the use of music to educate, illustrate and empower members of the public.

Statistics in both the United States and Canada indicate that more people purchase music when they are exposed to it. Adopting this strategy requires an acknowledgement that not all free downloads or streams equate to a lost sale. For political music this would equate to radio air play or television exposure that this form of culture currently lacks.

While I dont think it is necessary, limitations could also be imposed such as restricting the number of songs each organisation could stream at one time or imposing an arbitrary limit such as 10,000 streams per song. This could most easily be achieved through an exception to copyright infringement under the Copyright Act.

At present there is a distinct separation between activism and protest music. Breaking down this barrier would result in both increased awareness of issues as well as greater exposure, consumption and use of political works.

When one looks at material relating to the civil rights era in particular as well as other movements from the 1960s it becomes evident that the protests and other campaigns that took place at the time directly integrated with political song with many works being performed and sung on mass as part of the protest. With the exception of the Get Up Mobs version of ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ which was a song recorded and released as part of a Get Up campaign at the time of the apology to the Stolen Generation, it is difficult to find examples in recent times when songs were linked directly to political issues.

Finally, another important change that would improve access to protest music would be the development of a central repository or archive. This should not be limited to works that have entered the public domain but should offer the public streams of content. This could be operated by a non profit association incorporated in numerous jurisdictions around the world and could integrate with wikipedia pages which discuss specific social events or concerns.

Further Reading
Digital Music News, eMusic Goes Under the Knife; Makeover Unwrapping Soon (17 July 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/071608emusic> at 18 July 2008

washingtonpost, Yahoo to open music to other services (11 September 2008) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091101997.html>at 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, Yahoo Music Starts Opening Up; Early Blueprints Revealed (12 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091008yahoo> at 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, Aaliyah to ZZ Top: Amazon, IMDb Launch Music Wiki (4 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/090308amazon> at 4 September 2008

Songmeanigngs.net <http://www.songmeanings.net/> at 10 October 2008

Yahoo, Yahoo hopes to boost search fortunes with new music search (19 September 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080919-yahoo-hopes-to-boost-search-fortunes-with-new-music-search.html> at 21 September 2008

CNet News, Yahoo adds full-length music tracks to search results (18 September 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10045466-2.html> at 21 September 2008

Get Up, From Little Things Big Things Grow Campaign (January 2008)
<http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/MakeThisAHit&id=329> at 10 October 2008

Digital Music Stores are on the right track

Some recent changes to the digital music scene are worth mentioning and relate to the discussion I raise regarding specific strategies that will help political music to be heard in the digital environment. Firstly there has been some integration between music services and external sources of content, secondly there have been some changes allowing more flexible use of general search engines and thirdly there has been some progress with respect to allowing the streaming of content prior to purchase.

eMusic was the first to announce and begin to integrate outside content into its service with Wikipedia pages and You Tube videos being made accessible from artist's pages. This was recently followed by an announcement by Yahoo that similar measures would be undertaken.

One of the central arguments of the presentation I will be giving in early October is that this sort of integration is essential to political music as much of the lyrics relate to specific events and social history. More immediate access to this information and the direct association of this sort of material with the music would remove many of the steps needed to establish the context in which oppositional audible culture is produced and thus enhance the exposure, consumption and use of this form of music. Unfortunately early indications suggest that the integration of these sources will not be comprehensive but rather limited to artist biographies and clips relating purely to the songs themselves.

Yahoo, in partnership with Rhapsody, has also recently announced and begun allowing for full length tracks to be searched for through its general search engine. Again this is an important improvement simplifying the process of locating and accessing political music. However reports suggest that this will only allow songs to be searched for by artist name and song title. Whilst an improvement on what is available now, in order to enhance access and use of political music I argue that there needs to be more comprehensive search facilities which would enable the lyrics or embedded tags to be searched to locate material based on content.

Yahoo will also be allowing a limited number of tracks to be streamed once for free (25 per month) prior to the music being purchased. This is similar to the recently launched MySpace Music (only available in the USA at the moment) which will allow an unlimited number of streams of songs but will require purchase through Amazon in order to retain copies of tracks. In the case of MySpace Music the streams are ad supported with revenue sharing arrangements with copyright holders.

Whilst all music suffers from the pay-before-you-try model, as political music is commonly not accessible through mainstream media such as radio and television, this form of culture, and indeed many independent artists (if they are given equal access to these services), will benefit from this change of strategy.

The translation of political expression into social change requires interpretation and application. I argue that these efforts of allowing streams of songs are positive but for political music, greater exposure, consumption and use would more easily be affected through greater affiliation with legitimate non profit associations. I envisage allowing these sites the ability to stream related songs from their websites as one means to increase the communicative capacity of this form of music.

These steps whilst not across the board nor in themselves sufficient to ensure that political music is being heard, are nonetheless positive changes that can be built on in the future (if there is the commercial incentive to do so).

Further Reading
Digital Music News, eMusic Goes Under the Knife; Makeover Unwrapping Soon (17 July 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/071608emusic> at 18 July 2008

Yahoo, Yahoo hopes to boost search fortunes with new music search (19 September 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080919-yahoo-hopes-to-boost-search-fortunes-with-new-music-search.html> at 21 September 2008

CNet News, Yahoo adds full-length music tracks to search results (18 September 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10045466-2.html> at 21 September 2008

ArsTechnica, MySpace Music extends right hand of fellowship to Big Four, middle finger to indies (25 September 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080925-myspace-music-extends-right-hand-of-fellowship-to-big-four-middle-finger-to-indies.html> at 26 September 2008

TechDirt, Independent Record Labels Missing From MySpace Music (25 September 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080925/1530262378.shtml> at 26 September 2008

The Register, MySpace Music hears the antitrust song (18 September 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/myspace_music_antitrust/> at 21 September 2008

Digital Music News, MySpace Music Goes Live; All Majors On Board (25 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092408myspace> at 26 September 2008

Silicon Valley/Associated Press, MySpace rolling out music service (24 September 2008) <http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_10548663?nclick_check=1> at 26 September 2008

The Register, MySpace Music hears the antitrust song (18 September 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/myspace_music_antitrust/> at 21 September 2008

TechDirt, MySpace's Music Offering: Ignoring The Elephant In The Room (12 September 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080912/1514312256.shtml> at 21 September 2008

The Babel Objection

One of the areas I discuss in my presentation on the regulation of political music is the relative obscurity in which this form of expression is presently placed. One of the changes I have made to my paper is to include a reference to the text The Wealth of Networks by Professor Benkler of Harvard University.

Benkler considers criticisms raised regarding the democratising potential of the internet and in particular examines the ‘Babel objection’. In Chapter 5 he discusses the idea of information overload and states:

The cornucopia of stories out of which each of us can author our own will only enhance autonomy if it does not resolve into a cacophony of meaningless noise... Having too much information with no real way of separating the wheat from the chaff forms what we might call the Babel objection. Individuals must have access to some mechanism that sifts through the universe of information, knowledge, and cultural moves in order to whittle them down to a manageable and usable scope [Ch 5 pg 22-23].

He goes on to note that there are two primary mechanisms by which the Babel objection is overcome in the digital environment. Firstly, instead of isolated sites and users, there is a tendency for common interests to cluster (such as through interlinking) to establish both a core group of sites relating to certain themes as well as other more loosely connected but associated sources. He refers to this as a Bow Tie structure [Ch 7 pg 27]. Furthermore, peer recommendation, editing and filtering mechanisms assist to order the information on the internet to ensure that it is both diverse and manageable [Ch 5 pg 24].

He then goes on to refer directly to the improvements that the networked information economy provides with respect to music:

Instead of relying on the judgement of record labels and a DJ of a commercial radio station for what music is worth listening to, users can compare notes as to what they like, and give music to friends whom they think will like it. This is the virtue of music file-sharing systems as distribution systems [Ch 5 pg 25].

While I agree with the sentiments expressed with respect to music generally, when one examines the digital environment with a distinct focus on political music it becomes apparent that there is not a high level of clustering, filtering or peer recommendation.

In proposing specific strategies such as:

1. The allocation of dedicated space for political songs on digital music sites and the integration of weblogs, wikis and discussion forums,
2. Modifications to search engines to allow songs to be searched by imbedded tags or key words,
3. Allowing non commercial uses by genuine non profit websites, and
4. The development of a central repository or archive,

my goal is to create a digital environment which enables clustering, peer recommendation and filtering in order that oppositional audible culture may overcome the Babel objection and realise its true communicative capacity.

Further Reading
Yochai Benkler, ‘The Wealth of Networks’ [Paper Friendly Version] (2006)
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Download_PDFs_of_the_book> at 10 September 2008

The Evolution of Culture: Is Political Music Still Being Heard?

Updated: Here is the draft of a presentation I will be giving in the coming weeks. I discuss the nature of political music, the institutional developments and constraints on its production and reception and some strategies that could be employed to maximise its potential for social change.

Keep in mind that this is a work in progress.

Power point presentation with audio – warning large file
(this file has been updated)

Power point presentation without audio (see notes view)

Bibliography (word document)

(Select download with File Factory Basic).

BMR Music Survey

It was only yesterday that I was looking through all the articles I have collected on file sharing statistics and thinking that it had been some time since a survey had been conducted specifically highlighting the music sharing behaviour of people across age groups. Then last night I read of the British Music Rights ‘Music Experience and Behaviour in Young People’ survey. This is certainly worth a look and provides an excellent insight into the music buying and sharing habits of 773 people and covers the age groups of 14-17, 18-24 and 25+.

Some of the more interesting conclusions include that there are two aspects to a listeners relationship with music – the first being the emotional attachment they have to the music and the artists, and the second being the desire to explore and experiment with new music. Other aspects of the findings are unsurprising, particularly the suggestion that sharing and copying are culturally endemic and that much of the value associated with music is currently unmonetised.

Here is a breakdown of some of the results:

• Sixty percent of the money each person spent was on music was in relation to concerts (scarce goods) with forty percent being spent on recorded music (non scarce goods).
• A very small percentage of people said they spent money on subscription services with CDs, digital downloads and second hand music all being more popular.
• The average mp3 collection consisted of 1770.98 tracks but it is not clear whether this includes or is separate from the average CD collection reported later in the survey as being around 100 CDs.
• If going to a desert island (presumably one with power) 73% suggested they would take their music collection .

Statistics specifically relating to downloading music include:

• Sixty three percent of respondents download music illegally and on average this equates to 53 tracks per month.
• The top three reasons for downloading include because it is free; to find rare or unreleased material; and to try before purchasing.
• Just over twenty percent of those that download refuse to upload (leeching) but the reasons given don’t make a lot of sense – the most common reason was fear of a virus, security risk or because of pop-ups.
• The reasons given for uploading reflect what Lawrence Lessig refers to as ‘social norms’ – the vast majority of up loaders (around 70%) do so because they wish to return the favour to others.
• Eighty percent of respondents expressed support for a legal file-sharing service.

Overall fifty six percent of respondents suggested that companies who profit by allowing others to share music should pay a music license – presumably this refers to file sharing services however no information is given as to whether respondents thought that these companies were failing to seek these licenses (Limewire, Kazaa, eDonkey, the original Napster and others have all sought reasonable licensing terms from the record labels). Ninety percent of respondents said that this money should go to composers, musicians and performers with no mention of record labels (who are actually more commonly the copyright holders).

There are also some interesting statistics relating to copyright awareness, perceptions of legality and sources of information on the law which provide interesting reading.

Whilst certainly indicative of the general population and a reasonable sample size, the report issued does not provide raw data, details of the questions asked or methodology which would aid in its comprehension. Nonetheless it does provide a detailed illustration of the consumption and exposure to music of the average British citizen.

Further Reading
British Music Rights, Music Experience and Behaviour in Young People: Main Findings and Conclusions (Spring 2008) <http://www.bmr.org/cms/uploads/files/UoH%20Reseach%202008.pdf> at 18 June 2008

ArsTechnica, Survey: young people happy to pay for music—on their terms (16 June 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-survey-young-adults-willing-to-pay-for-musicon-their-terms.html> at 18 June 2008

The Register, 80% want legal P2P - survey (16 June 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/bmr_music_survey/> at 17 June 2008

The Leaky Boat

Recently there have been more examples of albums/singles being leaked onto the internet prior to their official release dates. There are a number of reasons why this occurs. Sometimes the leak is based on deception - where a person in a position of trust does not do the right thing. More often these days, however, it seems that these leaks are deliberate.

The biggest risk that a major label artist/copyright holder used to take was that an insufficient number of people would like their music – this was because the commercial market place was narrow and very well controlled by the labels who could more or less guarantee access to an audience (not always because of payola but this was part of the equation particularly in the USA). Now that the internet/technology has opened the marketplace and virtually any person can be an artist, the greater risk is that a new song will not be heard by anyone.

So these days it seems that these leaks are increasingly designed to attract publicity. Many commentators have noted that in the process of suing file sharing networks the record labels have actually generated publicity and assisted in increasing the traffic to these sites. One can only question whether the labels have recognised this trend and are now seeking to use it to their advantage.

Perhaps this overestimates the cunningness or intelligence of the labels. They still seem to prefer staggered release dates – something a country like Australia has grown to hate a lot and undoubtedly results in an increase in illegal sharing. While there are certainly valid arguments in suggesting that an artist should be able to control the release of their music to the public, in the digital age staggered release dates are completely illogical.

While the publicity that the leaks attract is directed in a negative fashion toward a particular person or the networks on which leaked works appear, the coverage nonetheless assists by making people aware of the songs in question. Despite the labels continued stance that all free downloads equal a lost sale and their ongoing argument that downloading does not help to provide awareness or result in some sales, in real terms I think they are learning to take advantage of the situation.

Further Reading
Digital Music News, Coldplay Album Starts Leaking; Release Date Mid-June
(6 June 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/060508coldplay> at 7 June 2008

Digital Music News, Usher Survives; Shifts 433,000 Albums First Week (5 June 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/060408usher> at 6 June 2008

Digital Music News, The Usher Leak: Download Estimates Emerge... (26 May 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/052608usher> at 4 June 2008

Digital Music News, ..But Upcoming Usher Album Starts Leaking (22
May 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/052208usherleak> at 4 June 2008

Reuters, Labels mull release strategies in age of piracy (29 April 2008) <http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2941336220080429> at 30 April 2008

ZeroPaid, New Gnarls Barkley 'The Odd Couple' Album Leaked to BitTorrent (15 March 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9330/New+Gnarls+Barkley+%27The+Odd+Couple%27+Album+Leaked+to+BitTorrent%21> at 18 March 2008

Digital Music News, Madonna Brings Hard Candy to Hair; Ads Starting Now (16 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/031608madonna> at 18 March 2008

The Times Onlines, Arctic Monkeys go bananas over file-sharing (31 March 2007) <http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1594238.ece> at 3 April 2007

TechDirt, Psst, Universal Music, The World Is Global Now (13 August 2007) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070810/190148.shtml> at 19 August 2007

ZeroPaid, The Pirate Bay Enters Top 100 Websites (24 May 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9510/The+Pirate+Bay+Enters+Top+100+Websites> at 5 June 2008

TechDirt, How The RIAA/MPAA Helped Catapult The Pirate Bay Into Being One Of The World's Most Popular Sites (20 May 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080519/0227541162.shtml> at 21 May 2008

The Register, Pirate Bay to sue music industry (16 April 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/16/piratebay_sues_music_industry/> at 26 April 2008

Digital Music News, Pirate Bay Pulls an IFPI... Legal Battlefield Intensifies (17 April 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/041608pirate> at 26 April 2008

TechDirt, What Good Will A Swedish Lawsuit Against The Pirate Bay Do? (29 January 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080128/19330699.shtml> at 31 January 2008

Digital Music News, Senator Prods Radio Conglomerates on Payola Compliance (12 July 2007) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/071207feingold/view> at 15 July 2007

p2pnet.net, First payola, now Dark Payola (18 April 2007) <http://www.p2pnet.net/story/12004> at 19 April 2007

Digital Music News, FCC Issues Payola Decrees Involving Terrestrial Conglomerates (16 April 2007) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/041607fcc> at 17 April 2007

Digital Music News, Major Radio Conglomerates, FCC Forge Payola Agreement (5 March 2007) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/030507payola> at 7 March 2007

Song of The Unicorn

First of all let me say sorry for the recent interruption to this blog – life can be unpredictable at times. Hopefully from now things will return to normal...

I have blogged before about the fantastic selection of children’s music available on eMusic and wanted to share with you a beautiful album I downloaded for my daughter recently.

Song of the Unicorn is one of the many fabulous albums available in the Classical Kids series. It tells the story of a young prince (Owen) and princess (Megan) sent on a mission to find a unicorn to cure their mother’s illness. Set in medieval times, characters include Merlin the Wizard and King Arthur. Combining fact and fantasy, the music reflects the renaissance period and the story includes a discussion about the birth of music.

Merlin talks about notes being born of silence and carried on the wind on the island of Atlantis 10,000 years earlier and how the people played their pipes to celebrate the harvest. With a volcanic eruption the city of Atlantis is sunk beneath the sea and for a thousand years music lived a half life before monks in monasteries began to chant and tried to write down the notes to their songs. He then talks of travelling musicians bringing new instruments from far away lands – Lutes from Asia, Pipes from Africa and the Harp from Europe and how music was now ready to move into the future. He talks of the future and how the shadows in his cave represent the cello, violin, clarinet, oboe and trombone which will not be heard for another 1000 years.

Megan is given the task of determining the future of music with Merlin stating: “If you wish to change the future you must foretell it.”Megan must reveal the unicorn song to save her mother and as she starts to play her Lute and begins to imagine, she succeeds by evoking what we now refer to as orchestral music. Merlin wonders how a child could dream such beauty and says that when they hear that music again they will know that they have cured their mother’s illness. They must find a unicorn but the unicorn will only approach a child who is pure of heart and sitting in an open field singing.

Megan and Own then travel to the island of Avalon to find the unicorns and are assisted by King Arthur who warns them of his sister Morgan. While waiting for the boat to take them over to the island Megan plays her Lute again, this time singing songs about their travels and how she wishes to be back at home in the kingdom. Morgan, having tried but failed to catch a unicorn in the past and desperate for one of their magic horns, tricks Megan and Owen by saying that she is the only one that can make their mother better and that she will only do so if they bring a unicorn to her.

Megan succeeds in drawing the unicorn close to her but Morgan’s archers are waiting by and shoot arrows at the unicorn – these are magically diverted to part the sky and Megan and the unicorn are saved. Megan then says to the unicorn that the only thing she can give it is freedom and with that the unicorn touches its horn on her instrument and on her necklace, and the beautiful music that she imagined in Merlin’s cave starts to play again. Later they return to the castle to find their mother has been cured and she tells them of her dream about two children and a unicorn.

This story and music are both beautiful and this is an album my daughter and I will cherish forever, however we understand the message from this story on different levels. I particularly like the idea of the birth of music from silence and the evolution it takes over time and under differing conditions and influences. I also very much appreciate the notion that the future of music is in the hands of the children and that without the ability and desire to imagine the future all we have is the present and the past.

The magic unicorn can also take on a representative form for me as I imagine that its desire to allow music to move into the future takes place only once it has been freed. Morgan, with her deception and motivation to kill the unicorn, could some ways be symbolic of the current regulatory climate music faces today, paralleling the desire to keep the magic of music as private property for the purposes of personal gain. Like much of culture, these symbols and meanings are a matter of personal interpretation.

From an educational point of view this CD, like all of those we have listened to so far in this series, is fantastic. The layering of an interesting story with periodic music educates, illustrates and entices young people in a way that is in itself a form of magic. On one level my daughter hears a story about two children, but underneath it there is the history of music presented in an effortless and enjoyable way. Megan acts also as a role model in some respects, not just because of the purity of her heart, but to show children that making music is beautiful, a way of connecting with people, expressing emotions and changing the world.

Ad Supported Music – Part 2

This is the second part to an earlier post in which I discussed the increasing use of advertising in business models to supplement or replace income from individual consumers in the digital music environment. Moving on from the worst case scenario, this post considers the ways in which an ad supported business model could be employed in a beneficial way.

The Most Favourable Model
Ad supported business models for music could create opportunities for the diversity of culture, free speech and democracy if developed in a way that took account of the potential negative implications and sought to overcome these. Ad supported music services offer an enormous potential for the reception of culture, enabling any person with access to the internet the ability to enjoy and explore an essentially unlimited range of material. Under the right conditions, business models of this nature also offer the potential to level the playing field for the entry of new creators. Again it is important to consider the nature of the enterprise offering the music service, the equality of access for speakers, the mode of communication and its influence on audiences as well as the independence of the opinions of creators.

In contrast to profit seeking entities, non profit associations or formal cooperatives allow a much greater opportunity to accommodate goals of an abstract nature such as the pursuit of a diverse and fair music industry; allow for democratic decision making and mutual ownership. While not all corporations possess objectives of extreme and unmitigated capitalism, any structure other than these would, if not from the outset, then certainly in time, allow for the worst case scenario as described earlier to develop. Employing an alternative structure does not mean operating without creating revenue but that this is not the primary objective. Any profits are returned to the members or used to enhance the service itself for the ultimate benefit of the public.

By employing such a structure there is a far greater opportunity to secure equality of access for creators thus promoting active public participation. In discussing an alternative compensation model for open peer to peer file sharing, Professor Terry (William) Fisher suggests that rather than just considering the number of times a track is downloaded or streamed from a digital music service, that an alternative or hybrid satisfaction determinant may be achieved through a public voting or rating system. Media corporations could continue to operate in such an environment but would be no more powerful to control the direction or development of the service(s) than any other member.

The democratic structure also provides for an open and transparent division of advertising revenue. By ensuring that independent, particularly politically motivated artists have equal access, enhances the likelihood of this genre of music to be created reducing the present commercial preference for emotive and dance music.

The mode of communication is also a fundamental determinant in the ability to secure free expression to the benefit of democracy. Unlike the closed internet architecture models discussed in the previous post, and while again a matter of degree in each instance, open peer to peer file sharing networks, particularly those written with open source code, offer no limitations to participation and unlimited file formats. Whilst the issue of digital rights management for individual files is not directly prevented by this model, typically it has been the case that unprotected files have been uploaded to open networks. If the remuneration of artists were to be facilitated on open networks there would more than likely be a need to track downloads or streams in some way, for example, through the use of non-invasive watermarks or other software. The non profit nature of the structure would therefore aid in limiting the incentives to implement digital rights management technology to the extent used in closed networks, allowing far greater reception, interpretation and mediation of culture.

The independence of the expression of creators would also be ensured to a far greater degree if an advertising model were adopted within a democratic/non private structure. There would also be less incentive to exclude or favour particular advertisers and the potential to allocate a quantity of advertising space to non profit or socially beneficial endeavours.

Conclusion
In the end the adoption of ad supported business models may not be identical for each music service presently in place or developed into the future. Nonetheless there are conditions in which political music and a diversity of culture will thrive over others. Left to the interests of powerful corporations it is far more likely that the potential for creativity, free speech and democracy will not be realised. Some parallels may be drawn with the implications of commercial television compared with the more liberal programming of public television. In order to enhance the quality of music and to create the conditions in which deliberative democracy can take place, there must be equity between creators, an open communication model and expression independent of the overbearing influence of capitalism.


Further Reading
ArsTechnica, Report: ad-supported content will soon dominate digital media (5 May 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080505-report-ad-support-content-will-soon-dominate-digital-media.html> at 6 May 2008

TechDirt, Advertising is Content; Content is Advertising (19 March 2008)
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080318/004136567.shtml> at 6 May 2008

TechDirt, Content Is Advertising... On TV (23 April 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080422/022513915.shtml> at 26 April 2008

Digital Music News, We're Number Three: SpiralFrog Claims Third-Place Download Crown (28 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/032708three> at 30 March 2008

CNet News, Ad-supported SpiralFrog finally launches music site (7 August 2007) <http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6201315.html> at 12 August 2007

Digital Music News, SpiralFrog Grabs $2 Million...With Serious Strings Attached (2 January 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/010207spiralfrog> at 11 January 2008

Digital Music News, MySpace Scores Gold Record (In Ad-Supported Terms) (24 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/032308pennywise> at 26 March 2008

Digital Music News, Back from the Brink: Qtrax Licensing Deals Emerge (3 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/030308qtrax> at 5 March 2008

Digital Music News, Details Bubbling on Major-Backed, Ad-Supported Venture (19 February 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/021708ad> at 21 February 2008

Digital Music News, Gabriel Pumps Serious Cash Into Ad-Supported Startup (22 January 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/012008gabriel> at 30 January 2008

William Fisher III, Promises To Keep (2004) <http://www.amazon.com/Promises-Keep-Technology-Entertainment-Stanford/dp/080475845X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210219722&sr=8-1> at 5 May 2008

Christopher J Sichok, The Free Market: An Erosion of Free Speech, eLaw - Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Volume 7 Number 3 (September 2000) <http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v7n3/sichok73.html> at 6 May 2008

Wikipedia, Deliberative Democracy (7 February 2008)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliberative_democracy> at 6 May 2008

Wikipedia, Public Television (25 April 2008)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_television> at 6 May 2008

Free Press <http://freepress.net/> at 6 May 2008

Ad Supported Music – Part 1

In a recent digital media survey concerning ad supported, subscription and pay per play business models, 62% of senior media executives stated an expectation that content creators will develop ad-supported business models by 2013. Twenty-five percent considered content creators would focus on subscription-based models and only 11% favoured pay-per-play services. While this survey did not specifically consider the pay per download model, the anticipation of an increase in adoption of ad supported services reflects current trends within the music industry and is a reasonable prediction. With this is mind it is pertinent to consider the ways in which such a model could develop, with the potential for both positive and negative attributes.

Traditional notions of free speech suggest that public spaces enable a market place of ideas which further the ends of liberty and justice. This conception of free speech depends on three vital assumptions – active public participation facilitated by equality in access for speakers; the mode of communication and its influence on audiences, and the independence of the opinions of speakers. The degree to which these attributes exist in the digital music environment reflects the potential opportunities for, or impediments to, free expression.

In this post I will outline some of the conditions least likely to realise the benefits cyberspace offers. In a follow up post I will counter this discussion with an outline of the ways that ad supported business models could be used to produce conditions favourable to creators and society.

The Worst Case Scenario
The use of advertising to supplement or replace direct consumer payments for music could have detrimental consequences if developed without adequate foresight. Where ad supported music services are owned privately and operated on a for-profit basis there are inevitably implications for free expression and democracy. These manifest primarily in a negative way by reducing the equality of access to speakers, in the selection of communication models and by influencing the content of creations. At present there is already a low level of competition within the legitimate digital music market. The natural tendency of capitalist corporations is to consolidate through mergers and in the event that a reasonable level of competition could not be maintained between web services, there would again be further threats to the diversity of culture, free speech and democracy.

In evaluating the ability of creators to equally access digital music services, the position of independent artists is of fundamental importance. Artists should have equal opportunity to communicate their works to the public and the same opportunities to produce financial rewards. Where such web services are related to major record labels there is an extremely high possibility that independents will not be given equal treatment. Even if such web services are owned and run separately from major content providers, the profit seeking motive of a private enterprise may nonetheless be enough to create a similar level of favouritism. This could occur in direct ways through limiting the participation of unsigned artists altogether or through indirect ways such as the allocation of prominent spaces, reviews and other promotional activities in an unfair manner.

The internet itself is a communication mode separate and distinguishable from others such as the mass media. Within this mode of communication a number of architectural models can be employed. For-profit, private music services are more likely to engage closed architectures. These include structures such as streaming subscription services, digital media stores and closed peer to peer networks. Whilst a continuum and matter of degree in each instance, a closed architecture by definition limits the ability of creators and consumers to participate by imposing requirements such as formal identification, entry payments and limiting the range of file formats. In addition to this, restrictions on the life span and subsequent uses of the content through the use of digital rights management technology influences the reception, interpretation and mediation of expression.

Another important factor in evaluating the ability for ad supported music services to achieve these goals is the independence of opinions expressed by creators. Two important factors are the strength of the connection between individual artists and commercial sponsorship, and the content of the advertising itself.

If implemented in a way that created direct sponsorship arrangements with individual artists, the use of advertising to supplement or replace the income of creators could amount to a level of commercialism within the music industry not seen even today. While many consider the present concentration of major record labels as harmful, by directly tying commercial sponsorship to the production of music and remuneration of artists, there would be a further constriction of free expression. If on the other hand, ad supported business models were connected only to the internet based music services themselves, there may be less influence over the content of creations and artists that are rewarded.

The nature of advertisements available on such web services also raises an interesting issue. It is feasible to suggest that whilst such services could cater to an enormous range of sponsors, that any site with a critical level of popularity will attract specific and demanding corporate advertisers. The size and the placement of the advertisements may be one factor to consider but the content and the nature of the advertisers is also a central concern. As Mike Masnick of TechDirt writes, advertising is a form of content just as content is a form of advertising.

Where corporate interests determine what music is produced and which artists will succeed, this inevitably results in a lack of cultural diversity and an absence of political or thought provoking material. This leads to less social and political awareness, therefore reducing civil participation and progress.


Further Reading
ArsTechnica, Report: ad-supported content will soon dominate digital media (5 May 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080505-report-ad-support-content-will-soon-dominate-digital-media.html> at 6 May 2008

TechDirt, Advertising is Content; Content is Advertising (19 March 2008)
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080318/004136567.shtml> at 6 May 2008

TechDirt, Content Is Advertising... On TV (23 April 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080422/022513915.shtml> at 26 April 2008

TechDirt, On Content, Promotions, Basic Economics... And Loutish Statements (25 March 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080324/000718629.shtml> at 27 March 2008

TechDirt, Just Because Content Is Free Doesn't Mean It's Worthless (15 April 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080411/153919828.shtml> at 17 April 2008

Digital Music News, We're Number Three: SpiralFrog Claims Third-Place Download Crown (28 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/032708three> at 30 March 2008

Wired Listening Post, Qtrax Inks Deal With Universal for Legal P2P Music (6 May 2008) <http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/05/qtrax-inks-deal.html> at 7 May 2008

Christopher J Sichok, The Free Market: An Erosion of Free Speech, eLaw - Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Volume 7 Number 3 (September 2000) <http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v7n3/sichok73.html> at 6 May 2008

Reception according to Foucault

Reception of music is the fundamental end result of the free speech/production/communication sequence in order for meaning to be transferred and for social action to be possible.

The text Music Culture and Society provides an article [On Music and It's Reception, pg164] by Michel Foucault and Pierre Boulez which considers the reception of popular music. Here Foucault notes that rock music provides a 'way of life, a manner of reacting... a whole set of tastes and attitudes' and that one cannot speak of a single relation to contemporary culture but rather a plurality of relationships, each given worth by the group which practices or recognises it and which confers its right to exist. He then goes on to discuss the relationship between contemporary culture and the institutions (to that point) largely responsible for its creation and dissemination:

I have the impression that many of the elements that are supposed to provide access to music actually impoverish our relationship with it. There is a quantitative mechanism at work here. A certain rarity of relation to music could preserve an ability to choose what one hears, and thus a flexibility in listening. But the more frequent this relation (radio, records, cassettes), the more familiarities it creates, habits crystallize; the most frequent becomes the most acceptable, and soon the only thing perceivable... It goes without saying that I am not in favour of a rarefaction of the relation to music, but it must be understood that the everydayness of this relation, with all the economic stakes that are riding on it, can have this paradoxical effect of rigidifying tradition. It is not a matter of making access to music more rare, but of making its frequent appearances less devoted to habits and familiarities...

This appears to me to highlight (part of?) the nexus between production/speech and reception/meaning. Using the technologies that Foucault describes its easy to see there was a bottle neck of sorts – the production of political music may well have been taking place but the institutions that controlled the content and extent of popular musical communication, being more concerned with commercial success, did not provide the means to allow the meaning to pass to listeners. This, Foucault suggests, was evidenced by and reinforced by the lack of diversity and range of popular music that the average listener was exposed to.

In the digital environment the same level of control by these institutions is not possible, indeed the more they try to recapture that control the more they fail (so far), but this has not automatically translated into an overabundance of cohesive social change music. The production may have increased since this time and the bottle neck may be slowly widening but the additional complication of a fragmentation of reception prevents the critical level of reception of this music necessary for it to realise its potential. Arguably it has been added to the existing bottle neck without that bottle neck being removed – as an alternative means that must compete with the control that lingers from the past as well as all the new creation that is possible.