Streaming Music, Streaming Capital

Eric Drott's book "Streaming Capital" explores the political economy of online music streaming platforms, highlighting the roles played by data collection, playlisting, copyright enforcement, and listening metrics. It calls for a broader reconsideration of music's relation to capitalism, as streaming threatens to reduce music to a cheap, abundant resource.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 360 pages
Publication date: 02 February 2024
Publisher: Duke University Press

Streaming Music, Streaming Capital, by Eric Drott, delves into the intricate political economy of online music streaming platforms. With a keen eye on how streaming has revolutionized the production, circulation, and consumption of music, Drott explores the key aspects of this new musical economy, including the roles played by data collection, playlisting, innovative copyright enforcement methods, and the calculation of listening metrics. However, the rise of streaming also highlights the complex and contradictory relationship between music and capitalism, prompting a broader reevaluation of this relationship. Drott's analysis goes beyond mere formatting of music to align with dominant economic value measures; it also delves into how music manages to evade these measures, potentially reducing it to a mere abundant resource. By examining the tensions between the benefits and pitfalls of streaming, Drott sheds light on the position of music within digital capitalism, encompassing issues such as growing monopolies, the use of music in corporate surveillance, and the valuation of musical value, labor, and artist pay.

Weight: 524g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478025740