Eric Drott, "Streaming Music, Streaming Capital" (Duke UP, 2024)
Dec 6, 2024
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Eric Drott, an Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Texas at Austin, delves into the intricate political economy of music streaming. He discusses how platforms like Spotify reshape genres and listener experiences, exposing economic challenges and the manipulative use of data analytics. Drott also highlights the implications of consumer surveillance, risks of streaming fraud, and the struggles of artists in a commercially-driven landscape. His insights paint a vivid picture of how streaming intertwines with wider issues like capitalism and social reproduction.
The podcast discusses how streaming music platforms have shifted the categorization of music from traditional genres to mood-based playlists, reflecting changing consumer listening habits.
Eric Drott emphasizes the multi-sided market nature of streaming platforms, where the interests of listeners, advertisers, and investors complicate the music distribution and consumption landscape.
The analysis reveals that streaming music commodifies data while decommodifying the music itself, raising ethical concerns about privacy and the economic pressures on artists within capitalist frameworks.
Deep dives
The Role of Streaming Platforms in Music Categorization
Streaming platforms have revolutionized music categorization by moving beyond traditional genres. With the rise of mood and activity playlists, music is increasingly organized based on contexts such as 'workout' or 'relaxation' rather than solely on established genres. This shift reflects the changing listening habits of consumers who utilize these playlists for specific activities, indicating a more nuanced relationship with music. As platforms compete with social media influences like TikTok, they actively curate playlists that cater to fleeting trends while transforming how listeners experience music.
Multi-Sided Market Dynamics of Streaming Platforms
Streaming platforms operate as multi-sided markets, engaging various user groups including listeners, artists, advertisers, and investors. Each group holds different stakes in the platforms and influences how music is distributed and consumed. While listeners tend to be considered the primary audience, the interests of advertisers and investors often drive the platforms' operational strategies. This complexity highlights the necessity for platforms to maintain a balance between catering to listeners’ desires while also fulfilling the economic demands of their business model.
Data Capture and Its Implications for Music
The process of data capture on streaming platforms emphasizes how user interactions are monitored and monetized. Platforms like Spotify utilize listening data to create detailed profiles for advertisers, allowing for targeted marketing strategies based on users' moods and activities. This commodification of personal data raises ethical questions concerning user privacy and the implications of utilizing listening habits to predict consumer behavior. As streaming services pivot toward maximizing their data assets, music becomes not just a cultural product but also a key component in digital surveillance practices.
The Economics of Music Streaming and Legitimacy
The legitimacy of music in the streaming economy is increasingly tied to the concept of 'streaming fraud,' which encompasses practices like click farms and artificial inflation of stream counts. This fraud complicates the perception of genuine listener engagement and challenges the platforms to define what constitutes legitimate listening. A new revenue-sharing model introduced by major labels aims to eliminate fraudulent streams but simultaneously risks marginalizing less mainstream artists who may not achieve the new thresholds for compensation. As the industry evolves, these economic pressures reshape artist strategies and their relationship with streaming platforms.
Expropriation and the Reproduction of Music in Capitalism
Streaming music has facilitated a new dynamic of expropriation, mirroring capitalist practices by commodifying music while decommodifying it for listeners. By treating music as a public good within a paywall, platforms effectively create an environment where music can be consumed freely once inside, while artists remain constrained by the structures of capitalist market systems. This commodification connects music with processes of social reproduction, including how music supports daily activities and child-rearing, illustrating its instrumental role in everyday life. As streaming continues to alter music's economic landscape, the implications for artists and listeners alike reflect broader socio-economic dynamics.
Streaming Music, Streaming Capital(Duke University Press, 2024) provides a much-needed study of the political economy of music streaming, drawing from Western Marxism, social reproduction theory, eco-socialist thought and more to approach the complex and highly contested relationship between music and capital. By attending to the perverse ways in which recorded music has been ultimately decommodified under the current regime of music production, circulation and consumption, Eric Drott explores issues that far exceed music - consumer surveillance, Silicon Valley monopolism, the crisis of care, capitalist extractivism and the climate emergency - while showing us how the streaming economy is thoroughly imbricated, and implicated, in these processes. Drott's rigorous and wide-ranging analysis thus offers novel ways of understanding music, culture, digitalisation and capitalism in present and future tenses .
Eric Drott is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Texas at Austin.
