David M. Arditi

Sheds light on the way large corporations appropriate new technology to maintain their market dominance in a capitalist system. Suggests an otherwise broader opposite perspective on the issue that digital music has diminished the power of major record labels.

Explores how ideology motivates aspiring musicians to sign even unfavorable contracts and obscures the reality of record contracts.

Explores the way The Voice and other reality TV shows use non-disclosure agreements to hide labor practices. Finds that non-disclosure agreements allow producers to avoid paying contestants at the same time the show’s coaches earn millions per season.

Notes with digitization and mobile technologies in tow, the consumption of music exploded. Finds music is now literally everywhere—but none of it is actually free. Argues that the digital music trap is an outgrowth of digital capitalism that commodifies our everyday existence.

Explores ways the digital realm challenges and reproduces power. Provides innovative case studies of various phenomenon including #metoo, Etsy, mommy blogs, music streaming, sustainability, and net neutrality to reveal the reproduction of neoliberal cultural logics.

Finds the recording industry is changing from a business model dependent on the sale of commodities to a model based on subscriptions and streaming. Terms this model unending consumption because it traps music listeners in a cycle where they must continually subscribe to have access to music.

Notes with the development of online music distribution, a number of authors argued that independent musicians could compete on equal ground with major record labels. Explores the effects that online distribution has had on distributing music to consumers. Argues that, through the development of iTunes, the major record labels have maintained the same advantages that they held through physical media distribution networks.

Sheds light on the way large corporations appropriate new technologies related to recording and distribution of audio material to maintain their market dominance in a capitalist system. Challenges the dominant discourse over digital music distribution, which has largely adopted the position that the recording industry has a legitimate claim to profitability at the detriment of a shared culture.