Week 11
B) Medosch argues that: “piracy, despite being an entirely commercially motivated activity carried out in black or grey markets, fulfills culturally important functions” (Reader, page 318).
Piracy can be seen as a relatively new phenomenon if we look at it in its current incarnation. As internet speeds have increased, so too has the rate of music and movie piracy. It is commonplace amongst many digital natives to pirate media because it is easy and yields virtually no consequences to the persons pirating media. Because it has become so easy to attain music, it should follow that all people are more culturally involved because the economy is no longer in control of cultural phenomena. On a darker note, the rapid change in how music is distributed has forced companies distributing music to come to terms with a new culture of consumers who will rarely pay for music.
Nonetheless, it can be argued that the culture that has been inspired by music pirates is not one that is completely detrimental to music. Take the example of Radiohead; a band that always seem to be finding new ways to distribute music. The first major commercial move that saw them move into a new field of music was entirely accidental; their upcoming album Kid A was leaked onto the budding Napster file sharing site for all to consume. Everyone in the industry predicted that this would mean that people would no longer purchase the album; they had already pirated it.
But it appears piracy is a more complex culture than was expected. Not only did people still buy the album, but it was done on such a scale that their album reached #1 in the album charts in Britain and the US; keep in mind folks, this is in a time where hip hop and RnB was the dominant musical force.
People who listened to this album had time to listen to it many times before its official release; easing them into what was quite a shock for most of their fans (yes, myself included). So, by the time it finally hit the shelves people were left in no question as to whether their money would be well spent or not; they were happy to fork out for a product that was guaranteed to be good.
So perhaps we are not a scummy culture just because we turn to piracy to get our fix of music; we are simply more cautious with our purchases. Piracy is a good way to preview an album, but if we still like the artist enough, it’s not a stretch to buy their music. It’s also nice in terms of aesthetics; being able to hold the album in your hand, flick through the lyrics and artwork and enjoy higher quality encoding are all factors that influence us as consumers into looking past the torrent to something more real; something that piracy will always find hard to replicate; authenticity.
Works Cited
- Menta, Richard 2000 ‘Did Napster Take Radiohead’s New Album to Number 1?’ mp3Newswire.net viewed 4/4/11 <http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2000/radiohead.html>
teekayr 