Title
Rising tides? Data capture, platform accumulation, and new monopolies in the digital music economy
Author ORCID Identifier
Vincent Manzerolle: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6652-3179
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-8-2018
Publication Title
New Media & Society
Keywords
music industries; information technology; platforms; streaming; user data; data capture; promotion
Abstract
This article examines the roles of platform-based distribution and user data in the digital music economy. Drawing on trade press, newspaper coverage, and a consumer privacy complaint, we offer a critical analysis of tech-music partnerships forged between Samsung and Jay-Z (2013), Apple iTunes Store and U2 (2014), Tidal and Kanye West (2016), and Apple Music and Drake (2017). In these cases, information technology (IT) companies supported album releases, and music was used to generate user data and attention: logics of data and attention capture were interwoven. The IT and music industries have adapted their business strategies to what we conceptualize as platform-based capital accumulation or ‘platform accumulation’, and models centred on controlling access and extracting rent have enabled the emergence of new monopolies and IT gatekeepers.
DOI
10.1177/1461444818800998
Recommended Citation
Meier, Leslie M. and Manzerolle, Vincent R.. (2018). Rising tides? Data capture, platform accumulation, and new monopolies in the digital music economy. New Media & Society.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/communicationspub/18
Included in
Arts and Humanities Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Mass Communication Commons