Independent Music after Metallica v. Napster, Inc.: Seeking Liberation in the Music Streaming Simulacrum

Authors

Lukas Szrot, Bemidji State University

Abstract

In this brief paper, I note the ways in which being a musician has changed in the aftermath of the digital downloading and file-sharing developed by Napster pioneer Shawn Fanning, through the lens of the music streaming simulacrum—my term for what has unfolded since. I contrast the present environment with the potential that emerged with this technology. I theorize the music streaming simulacrum as opaque, flat, and hegemonic—a parody of both industry and culture that incomprehensible by a single human being, militates against deeper connectivity between artist and listener, and exerts outsized power over human behavior and decision-making in a particular domain. I draw on my personal experience as a critical social theorist and veteran recording artist to describe life and art in this environment. In reaching a dialectical conclusion, that independent artists both gain and surrender greater autonomy than in the past, I sketch alternatives which connect back to the promise and difficulties of earlier modes of musical production and consumption.

Author Biography

Lukas Szrot, Bemidji State University Assistant Professor

Department of Sociology

Recommended Citation

Szrot, Lukas (2024) "Independent Music after Metallica v. Napster, Inc.: Seeking Liberation in the Music Streaming Simulacrum," Fast Capitalism: Vol. 21: Iss. 1, Article 10.
DOI: 10.32855/1930-014X.1058
Available at: https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/fastcapitalism/vol21/iss1/10