Opening with an outline of how Apple was able to turn the music industry’s ineffective response to illegal digital audio file sharing to its advantage by creating a coherent online music platform that favoured its iconic iPod player, this post traces the subsequent evolution of consumer music technology away from an ownership model to subscription services.
Starting with the idea that subcultures are expressed through conspicuous consumption, this post explores how the impression of ownership experienced by consumers of recorded music on vinyl, audiotape and CD was only ever an illusion of these media. It goes on to describe how subsequent technologies broke the bonds of recording and medium, reducing the possibilities of cultural expression through ‘ownership’ of recorded music.
