Digital Music Wars: Ownership and Control of the Celestial Jukebox

by Patrick Burkart, Tom McCourt

With the rising popularity of online music, the nature of the music industry and the role of the Internet are rapidly changing. Rather than buying records, tapes, or CDs―in other words, full-length collections of music―music shoppers can, as they have in earlier decades, purchase just one song at a time. It's akin to putting a coin into a diner jukebox―except the jukebox is in the sky, or, more accurately, out in cyberspace. But has increasing copyright protection gone too far in keeping the music from the masses? Digital Music Wars explores these transformations and the far-reaching implications of downloading music in an in-depth and insightful way. Focusing on recent legal, corporate, and technological developments, the authors show how the online music industry will establish the model for digital distribution, cultural access, and consumer privacy. Music lovers and savvy online shoppers will want to read this book, as will students and researchers interested in new media and the future of online culture.

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2006

Reviews

[Jeffrey Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patrick Burkart and Tom McCourt confront the important issues associated with a highly concentrated digital media industry attempting to construct a "celestial jukebox" that privileges their interests above those of media consumers. The authors define the celestial jukebox as "various systems whereby any text, recording, or audiovisual artifact can be made available instantaneously via wired and wireless broadband channels to Internet appliances or home computers." The pioneers in this effort are the recorded music firms and their trade association in the United States, the Recording Industry of America (RIA). As time goes on, and digital video becomes more and more practical, the motion picture and television broadcasting industries are increasingly allied with the RIA in attempting to redefine and secure intellectual property rights over digitally distributed media. These efforts have not gone unchallenged. The first shot across the bow in the music industry was the quick take up of file sharing via Napster and later more sophisticate peer-to-peer network technologies. The users, many of them young, rebelled against the packaging of songs of varying quality into albums and CDs. This book focuses on the industry response to Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing, siding mostly with the users and emphasizing the need to protect the rights of artists and other creative individuals to share their work with one another freely. Burkhart has written two other books more or less on the same topic since this one was published: Music and Cyberliberties and Pirate Politics. I will review those works separately.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good overview of the machinations of the music industry's concerns and actions in the field of digital distribution. The book provides great details about the significant legal and political battles in the late 90s through 2005 which is useful for anyone researching anti-piracy/filesharing measures taken by the industry. However, the book also functions as a polemic, which I was less than interested in; it felt like preaching to the choir. It's clearly written, relatively short, and contains numerous citations and is worth a read if you have anything more than a cursory interest in distribution in the new millennium.

[Justin Gerhardstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book maps out the effects that the introduction of digital music (mp3, WAV, etc.) has had on the music industry. Of course, Napster is a case that is described in great detail, and Larz of Metallica is still a winy little crybaby. (Im still pissed for getting booted off Napster for having one Metallica song). Riiiiight. If you are interested in working anywhere in the music industry, this will give you a good idea of where it is heading and how it will change as technology changes with it.