Photo taken by Vivian Davey - Barcelona, Spain.
When we think about 'winners and losers' of the global economy we may not be surprised to find out the major players who control and coordinate production networks are the transnational corporations (Dicken, 2007). The worlds wealthy elite (a whole 20% of them) control over 80% of the worlds trade, investment and income (Dicken, 2007). This handful of corporations control food networks, technology, consumerist goods and my favourite topic, music!
My virtual network of Soundcloud directly undermines the capitalist corporations that have been the 'norm' in the music industry since the moment people realised money could be made from it. Music corporations don't want you to listen to free music online or support unsigned, unknown artists because they're not making any money that way! But as the world advances into the digital age, more and more people are finding their music online, and despite the fact that they're illegal, file sharing platforms such as Piratebay continue to flourish as people share music and other media for free.
As mentioned in the reading in The Economist, the digital revolution is happening, and soon enough people will be 'making products at home and marketing them globally from a garage'. This is exactly the case already with Soundcloud where music is created at home, in somebody's garage or bedroom and shared globally to potentially millions of people. Despite our reservations about the world wide web, the global sharing of creativity and ideas can only be a good thing to unite the people of the world. To check out a blog by a Greenville music student who obviously likes to rant (much like I do) about music corporations, check out this link! http://ist.greenville.edu/gct/content/musi
Remember fellow bloggers, support local and live music!
Over & Out!
Lunar (Vivian Davey).
References:
Dicken, P. (2007). Winning and losing. In Global Shift: mapping the changing contours of the world economy. London: SAGE Publications Inc.
(April 21, 2012). The third industrial revolution. In The Economist.
Photo credit:
Photo taken by myself, Vivian Davey - 'street musicians in Barcelona, Spain'.
I really enjoyed reading this particular blog about how people, with regards to music, have taken away some of the power of these big corporations. In particular the part that refers to the digital revolution and the fact that music can be created in the home, reminds me of a quote from The Economist reading, "Ford needed heaps of capital to build his colossal River Rouge factory; his modern equivalent can start with little besides a laptop and a hunger
ReplyDeleteto invent. Like all revolutions, this one will be disruptive." (Ryder, 2012, p. 1)
Reference:
Ryder, B. (2012, April 21). Manufacturing: The third industrial revolution. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/21553017/print