The gramophone was thought to be perverse because it allowed people to listen to music on their own. Rock ‘n’ Roll was the devil’s music. Home taping supposedly killed music. Copyright piracy is not a victimless crime. Downloading music is stealing. Spotify doesn’t adequately pay artists. YouTube remuneration creates a value gap for artists. Mp3s make music sound flat. TikTok shortens songs. AI steals ideas.
With each new music distribution technology, the powerful corporate interests of the moment try to make people afraid to use it. In Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy: From Taping to Napster to TikTok, Dr. David Arditi examines how the major record labels single-out new technologies as if they will bring an end to recorded music. They use what he calls the “piracy panic narrative”—a narrative in which new technologies threaten the very existence of recorded music. The piracy panic narrative is a rhetorical construct that helps to hide the material reality of the recording industry by positioning major record labels and their recording artists as the victims of widespread crime in the form of piracy.
Now, divorced from piracy, the recording industry continues to use the panic narrative to dissuade fans from specific practices and to lobby the government for particular policies. Each time, they use the narrative to change public sentiment, the law, and policy to strengthen their profits. It works because fans feel a connection with their favorite artists. Fans want their artists to be paid a fair wage. But at every moment what gets ignored is labels are the primary exploiter of musicians. Asking why YouTube underpays artists is the wrong question because streaming platforms pay labels. The question that never gets asked: why don’t labels pay artists a livable wage?
