Technologies and media in digital music: From music market crisis to new listening practices

Abstract

In the last decade, the music industry has become the paradigm of the transformations that has carried the development of the productive system towards Informational Capitalism. Of the hand of a quick technological innovation, not always produced by companies, new forms of production and consumption of music have been developed. This new environment has dragged the phonographic companies to a crisis of sales that has forced a radical transformation for the sake of survival. One of these business transformations has been the intensification of the management of copyright. This intensification occurs mainly in two areas: the extension of the protection deadlines and the expansion of the fields and rights management companies-driven activities. This article is intended to answer the question that lies behind the ambitions to modify the productive system: how create cultural industries capable, at the time, to maintain a common and democratic culture and also to develop initiatives to generate capital gains to musicians, songwriters, and other music professionals. We will use data from a research that have conducted three group interviews segmented by age. The aim is to cross the views and experiences of consumers with the analysis of the evolution of music industry organization. From the observation that the younger generations are installed in a culture of free music, we explore what new business opportunities appear and how are received from the conflicting positions already referred.