iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Streaming Era

(Paperback, Second Edition)

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The second edition of iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Streaming Era sheds light on the way large corporations appropriate new technology to maintain their market dominance in a capitalist system. To date, scholars have erroneously argued that digital music has diminished the power of major record labels. In iTake-Over, sociologist David Arditi suggests otherwise, adopting a broader perspective on the entire issue by examining how the recording industry strengthened copyright laws for their private ends at the expense of the broader public good. Arditi also challenges the dominant discourse on digital music distribution, which assumes that the recording industry has a legitimate claim to profitability at the expense of a shared culture.



Arditi specifically surveys the actual material effects that digital distribution has had on the industry. Most notable among these is how major record labels find themselves in a stronger financial position today in the music industry than they were before the launch of Napster, largely because of reduced production and distribution costs and the steady gain in digital music sales. Moreover, instead of merely trying to counteract the phenomenon of digital distribution, the RIAA and the major record labels embraced and then altered the distribution system.

Reviews

A decade ago, the music recording companies argued that illegal downloading was destroying their industry. Arditi provides evidence that the major record labels are in a stronger position financially and politically now than prior to the digital revolution. Additionally, rather than being a passive victim of technology, the major firms have actively influenced the direction of change. . . The author predicts that the price of streaming services will increase in the future, and that music playlists will be based on consumer mood and activities, and furthermore that the negative impact of these changes on culture will be profound. Though this new edition was completed prior to the pandemic restrictions, which have dramatically impacted all segments of the economy, it remains relevant and is highly recommended reading for all those interested in the future of the music industry. Highly recommended. All readers.

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In the first edition of iTake-Over, Arditi mapped the myriad ways that the music industry, claiming to be the victim of piracy, sought legal protection against file-sharing and bent the digital transformation to its bottom line. Six years ona virtual lifetime in the digital worldhe has updated his compelling analysis, adding new players to the debates over copyright and -left, and assessing the impact of streaming and subscription services on both the production and consumption of music. The result is critical reading for anyone with an interest in how the music industry has adapted to the digital 'revolution'; restructured the ways in which we produce, find, and listen to music; and expanded its market dominance.Nancy Weiss Hanrahan, George Mason University -- Nancy Weiss Hanrahan, George Mason University
David Arditi has done musicians and listeners as well as scholars of culture industries a real service by updating iTake-Over. In the past five years, streaming has come to dominate our experiences and analyses of the business of music, yet Arditis cogent account of the piracy panic narrative remains an authoritative critique of the record industrys initial response to digitization. And while the bogey of file-sharing has come and gone, in this second edition, Arditi adds a detailed consideration of the political-economic stakes of music consumptions reorganization from acquisition to access in the streaming era. -- Michael Palm, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Author Bio

David Arditi is associate professor of sociology and director of the Center for Theory at the University of Texas at Arlington.