TRANSVERSALLY
Music and revenue was never something that was connected from the very beginning. It's only in our commercially driven society that forced us to see music as nothing more than a product sold and distributed to the masses. Music personally is something that's nothing more than art, something that you listen to, its a side dish to lifestyle created by people who want to create a piece of art. Do people who make poems think they'll ever sell millions of copies? Music is a feeling rather than a can of coke, its abstract, it doesn't quench your thirst physically but it does mentally.
The reason I wanted to start this off to talk about transversality is because of how skewered the definition of music has become; a result of this week's news report articles about the music industry. Sure, the music industry is real, and its dying, its trying to renew itself in many different ways, but its struggling because of music piracy amongst other things. But that's what I think is the interpretation of transversality.
What used to be separate and distinct ideas which are not easily merged or discussed together has seem to have deterritorialised. New ways of doing things because of this corrosion of norms, music having the ability to reach more people than ever before because of digital media and a wide social network of people.
The music industry whines about how hardhitting internet piracy has become when what they're trying to say is that they could not cope fast and think flexibly enough to distribute their music in a number of new ways that could still help them make money.
How is it independent game developers are capable of getting money to produce entertaining and original games without the complex resource structures that big label companies or game companies have?
That's because they make use of social networking, kickstarter and word of mouth through online media to make people interested to help them produce games. For example, Homestuck.
Homestuck being a purely online web series has a large fortune from the online fan community from basically out of nothing but pure creativity. They produced t shirts, calendars and other memorabilia, they didn't have factories and wide spread resources, but what is most significant in their arsenal is online technology. Its likely one of the most successful new age media I've ever seen because of how widespread the community has become.
So why couldn't the music industry survive in the new age when other mediums can re-imaging themselves to be more like this? It seems more like stubborn corporate policies are holding the industry down and nothing else.
No comments:
Post a Comment