Since the dawn of the peer-to-peer file sharing program Napster, the sharing of media (and in particular, music) has become a huge concern for the creators and distributors of this content.
Steinmetz and Tunnel completed research on such a phenomenon, and discovered that there were four main motivations for participating in the downloading and sharing of music files, also known as "piracy". These four motivations include the sharing of content as a cultural form, the sampling of data, the inability to afford content, and in order to undermine current copyright regimes. (Steinmetz & Tunnel)
In my personal experience, I find these four motivations to be similar to what I use as rationalization for piracy. I prefer to download media content not only because it is cost effective, but also for the way that it undermines the copyright regimes which are enforced by government and backed by the recording industry.
Music downloading is not just an individual "hobby," however the act of file sharing involves a large community of people who are able to transfer media as well as communicate with one another during the process. Dale Bradley sees this peer-to-peer file sharing as a "transmission of cultural codes, values, and practices between a hacking subculture built around online communication".
While piracy is an illegal act that loses the recording and film industries millions of dollars every year, it seems nearly impossible to prevent this sub-culture from dying out.
There are many steps that recording industries have taken in order to stop piracy, including the push to increase copyright laws, fining those who download illegally, and getting peer-to-peer sites such as LimeWire shut down.
However, the subculture of file-sharers and pirates is so large, that there will always be new file sharing site when old ones get shut down. While individuals may get fined for this illegal activity, it will be impossible to find and charge every person that commits piracy. If copyright laws are enforced, these "hackers" will find ways to undermine them.
Thus, recording industries need to find ways to work with these Pirates. First, using promotional tools such as "free digital downloads" such as unreleased songs, album art, or bonus content concurrent with the purchase of a record or CD encourage the purchasing of tangible items. As well, the use of applications such as iTunes promote and encourage legal downloading at low expenses.
Bradley, D. (2006) Scenes of Transmission: Youth Culture, MP3 File Sharing, and
Transferable Strategies of Cultural Practice. M/C Journal.
9(1).
Steinmetz, K., K.
Tunnell (2013). Under the Pixelated Jolly Roger: A Study of On-Line
Pirates. Deviant
Behavior. 34 (1), pg.
53-67
In my original post, "Creative Consumer Culture: Youtube & New Media Forms" I had expressed my thoughts on the way that new media forms such as YouTube will continue to allow individual expression and creation of content through all sorts of digital communication modes.
Since there are so many channels which allow for high levels of distribution of this media content, there is a greater variety in the content that is online. Individuals are able to pick and choose the content that they want to watch, and that content may not necessarily be produced by corporate means, or with capital revenue in mind -thus contributing to a more democratic cultural mosaic.
That being said however, there will still always be a hierarchy of content that creates a gap between the content creators based on things like the amount of likes or views something might have. Returning to the example of Youtube, a video of a pre-established music artist will have more views than one by a music artist who isn't pre established. These videos that have higher views will gain even further attention via the websites home page which displays the "popular" videos. Sites such as Youtube may even support paid-promotional videos. Thus, promotion and distribution of media content comes down to capital, creating the gap between content creators who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing, and those that do not have the financial means to follow suit.
However, there are plenty of examples of Youtube videos that have been created by average citizens, which gain high popularity among the masses. Such examples include Rebecca Black's "Friday" or even the Brock Harlem Shake video (Now with over half a million views!). Thus these sites can still provide a space for the creation and recreation of content in order to contribute to a more democratic cultural commons.
Creative Consumer Culture
In the digital age, the consumption of culture has transitioned from a one-way flow of communication, to a vast and intricate web of creation of content between producers and consumers. We have moved passed the idea of the passive and mindless entity, and onto something bigger. With Social Media, consumption has become highly interactive. Not only are we consuming the content that is being created, but we are re-creating, appropriating, and inventing our own cultural content.
Jenkins states that there is an "alarming concentration of the ownership of mainstream commercial media, with a small handful of multinational media conglomerates dominating all sectors of the entertainment industry." (Jenkins, H.) This is problematic, as concentrated ownership works to homogenize our culture, taking away from individualism and creativity.
YouTube & Cultural Production
Lucas Hilderbrand describes Youtube as "revolutionary" for it's increased access to content over restricted access laws (Hilderbrand, L.). In relation to the topic I have been exploring over the course of this semester, I wanted to provide an example on News and the way in which YouTube can act as a weapon against the concentration of culture. This video displays a parody of CBC news and the issues regarding Canadians, as depicted by a group of people in Barbados. This video is a great example of how anyone is able to produce their own content and distribute it via YouTube, regardless of factors such as geographical location or finances. Video can be found here
.
This example of how popular culture is appropriated shows the way in which people are "fighting for the right to participate more fully in their culture, to control the flow of media in their lives and to talk back to mass market content." (Jenkins, H.)
Youtube & Copyright Laws
As new media, Youtube accelerates the relationship between producer-consumers, as millions of video content is constantly being produced by all sorts of people all over the world. However, if we examine the type of content that is being produced, much of it is content that has already been created. Again, if we return to the example of the CBC news parody, it is taking content that has already been created and redistributing it in a new form. The video is taking familiar symbols such as the CBC News acronym, and re-appropriating them.
Parodies, remixes, and recreations of original cultural products are all highly popular on Youtube. While copy right laws have increasingly become more and more severe, it is interesting to see that this content is circulated among the masses, regardless of copyright infringement. Thus, new media such as Youtube work to promote a "cultural commons" one that is freely accessible by the public.
My prediction is that with forms of new media, our culture will not only continue to become more and more diverse as individuals are able to produce their own content, but we will continue to fight for control over free access to cultural markets even in the face of increasingly powerful copyright laws.
Hilderbrand, L. (2007). Youtube: Where Cultural Memory and Copyright Converge. Film Quarterly. Vol 61, No. 1, 48-57.
Jenkins, H. (2004) The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence. International Journal of Cultural Studies. March 2004, 7: 33-43
