You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials, because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox in 4 parts without commercial interruptions.

The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.

The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run, or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.

NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32 or report from 29 districts.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers in the instant replay. There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers in the instant replay.

There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.

There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and women will not care if Dick finally gets down with Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people will be in the street looking for a brighter day.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock news and no pictures of hairy armed women liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.

The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb, Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.

You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.

The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;

The revolution will be live.

The first is to put open distribution and community at the heart of the band, and to use these elements as catalysts to build growth, awareness and expose the benefits of what I am referring to as the Open Band approach. (emphasis added)

It seems to me that community is something that develops alongside and through association with a band. As a fan practice, this is nothing new. What is new is the explicit attempt to craft this as a strategy in response to major labels backing down from providing distribution and touring support. Much like what is happening generally under neoliberal ideology, a forced entrepreneurialism raises its head in two ways: 1) the band is more or less compelled to take responsibility for what the label used to do (though really, the large majority of professional musicians have always had to do this, so this alone is nothing new) 2) fans’ traditional (pleasure seeking) activities are discursively situated as assisting in honing the band’s competitive edge. Being a fan now takes on an instrumental logic.

Indeed, this logic, and the language of the market are reinforced further here

In a recording industry environment that is widely regarded as ineffective, if we provide a solid example of a band that provides free access to content (which significantly lowers the barrier to attract fans) and empowers those fans with a community, this results in a wider fanbase that feels a closer sense of commitment to supporting their favorite bands. Of course, the same approach could be applied to other creative endeavors: publishing, art, video and more. My goal is to make Severed Fifth a successful and repeatable template. (emphasis added)

It appears right out of the corporate-speak dictionary. Fans have always proven capable of autonomously producing, maintaining, and (importantly) dismantling communities, and have proved similarly adept at showing their commitment to their favourite artists and to helping promote them (e.g. in my hometown, there is a rail bridge that has, since the 1970s, been emblazoned with gigantic (and fading) graffiti declaring “LED ZEPPELIN”). The difference now is that such organic, autonomous fan tactics are now facing expropriation. Those seeking to profit from their musical endeavours appear to internalise neoliberal ideology in an attempt to colonise and extract value from the common. And it is dressed, as always, in the language of empowerment.

That said, I do wish Severed Fifth musical success and empathise with the “we’ll try anything” approach to getting their music out there.

1. David Byrne: How architecture helped music evolve: David Byrne is so cool he could power a room full of cryogenic pods just by staring at them. Here, he channels his impressive experiences playing everywhere from CBGB and Tootsie’s to Carnegie Hall and Disney Hall to discuss the impact that architecture held over his compositions. Everything had to be written to suit the challenges of a specific space, and Byrne broadens his observations to encompass the whole of music history. He even points out similarities between this phenomenon and similar concepts found in nature, using sparrows and tanagers as an example.
2. Adam Sadowsky engineers a viral music video: Emerging technologies and social media have changed the face of music forever, and bands such as OK Go discovered creative ways to yield the internet as a promotional tool. Even those who don’t much enjoy their music still appreciate the imagination and painstaking detail that goes into their viral videos. “This Too Shall Pass” charmed audiences in early 2010 for its immensely clever, highly competent use of Rube Goldberg-inspired engineering — and, as intended, quickly went viral. In this illuminating TED Talk, the man behind the plan reveals the methods behind designing and building the wondrous machinery that became a massive online hit.
3. Eric Whitacre: A choir as big as the internet: Another excellent video demonstrating the increasingly more intimate relationship between the internet and music, this time showing off an impressive understanding and utilization of both. 185 participants hailing from 12 countries submitted videos and audio files of themselves singing the individual parts of conductor and composer Eric Whitacre’s original choral arrangement “Lux Aurumque.” A showstopping virtual choir results, with everyone’s submission carefully, passionately pieced together into one video. It especially warrants viewing by music students and aficionados with a particular interest in how art can blend with technology in new and exciting ways.
4. Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music: Music fans looking for a little stimulation on a time crunch should check out this amazing talk by 10-time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin, famous for the ubiquitous “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” In only three minutes, he uses audience participation to illustrate the pentatonic scale and points out some stunning facts lurking behind it. With only a small amount of hinting, he’s able to conduct a spontaneous, improvised choir capable of following his musical commands. How this phenomenon works is not exactly explained — scientists themselves might also find it baffling — but it definitely highlights the wonderful mysteries inherent in the human mind and its relationship with established musical patterns.

5. Robert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanity: The story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers stands as a triumphant example of music’s uncanny ability to help and heal. Plagued with schizophrenia and the social marginalization that comes with it; he broke down and was tragically forced to sacrifice promising Julliard studies, eventually turning up homeless in Los Angeles. TED Fellow and LA Philharmonic violinist Robert Gupta once met and taught the brilliant, troubled musician, which piqued his interest in how music relates to mental illness and other neurological and cognitive issues. This bittersweet, tender tale underscores the importance of both music therapy and a greater understanding of how the human mind works and can work.
6. Emmanuel Jal: The music of a war child: Through books, lectures and music, activist Emmanuel Jal bravely opens up about his harrowing life as a child soldier in Sudan. Because many of his contemporaries and successors lack the resources and education to voice their struggles and hardships, he channels both his personal pain and the volatile climate of his war-torn nation into impassioned music. TED provided him another platform to share his tragic experiences and pay tribute to aid worker and education proponent Emma McCune through talk, song and dance. In today’s world of empty exhibitionism and soulless pap plaguing the air waves and DJ booths, it’s always refreshing to hear voices utilizing their talents to raise the world’s consciousness and inspire them towards social justice. These are the men and women deserving of more recognition and resources.
7. David Pogue on the music wars: By this point, everyone on both sides of the argument is probably exhausted with rehashing the same talking points on digital music and piracy. The multitalented David Pogue with the New York Times humorously sings about how the Internet, music industry, RIAA and television stations have reacted to developing technologies, rising prices and illegal downloads. Nobody escapes from his synthesized, cheekily self-aware homage to Billy Joel, Sonny and Cher and the Village People. While it may not be as provocative as many of the lectures and performances, the charming video makes for a lovely, light distraction to spark talks about broader copyright issues.
8. Benjamin Zander on music and passion: Although concepts behind classical music flow throughout his lecture, conductor Benjamin Zander uses the multifaceted genre as a springboard towards broader ideas and phenomena. Social conditioning, cognition and emotion all factor into this intriguing relationship, and he starts out by discussing the role of impulse in creating, performing and reacting to classical pieces. In addition, the lecture also delves into cultural perceptions of Chopin and other masters. Zander’s clear, almost manic, adoration of classical music infects the audience, however, and fuels his desire to open the world up to everything it has to offer them creatively, emotionally and intellectually.
9. Ananda Shankar Jayant fights cancer with dance: In 2008, Ananda Shankar Jayant received a devastating breast cancer diagnosis. This lecture delves into her intensely emotional battle against the disease, discussing how immersing herself in traditional Indian dance lifted her spirits and stimulated her mind. Of course, doing so did not outright cure her cancer, but it provided her with the strength and courage to carry on with life and treatment. Jayant’s inspiring tale culminates in her sharing one of the many dances that guided her through such heavy trials. Her movements represent much, much more than classical Indian artistry — they also serve as an incredibly strong metaphor for the intensity and fear she experiences on a daily basis, and the hope needed to survive it all.
10. Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen: At first, the idea of a deaf percussionist may seem an absurd, oxymoronic concept. Composer and percussionist Evelyn Glennie, however, completely defies the unfair, unfounded stereotype. Deaf since age 12, she challenges more than just preconceived notions regarding disability. She has carved for herself a respectable (not to mention respected) niche amongst her peers as a percussionist, because music involves so much more than the production of sound. Truly listening to a composition also means an awareness of the vibrations and movement present within an immediate time and place. Musicians and hopeful musicians especially need to pay close attention to her valuable lessons, as they will certainly enhance one’s experience in creating and relating effective compositions.
11. Pamelia Kurstin plays the theremin: Marvel as the incredible Pamelia Kurstin performs with one of the music world’s most bizarre, haunting electronic instruments. Played without touching anything, the theremin possesses two antennae, each controlling either tone or pitch through vibrations. Most people probably recognize the sound as something straight out of a classic science fiction or horror film, but this performance showcases the strange and wonderful instrument’s true potential. Following her skillful set, Kurstin relates the intricate whats and whys behind the delightful (yet sadly underrated) theremin as well as its fascinating history.
12. Bruno Bowden folds while Rufus Cappadocia plays: Another seriously cool video appropriate for music fans needing to kill a few minutes. Bruno Bowden, a Google engineer with a particular fondness for the art of origami, decided to challenge himself by folding one of fellow paper enthusiasts Robert Lang’s legendarily complex designs — blindfolded! Rufus Cappadocia improvises some appropriate accompaniment on “his custom, five-string cello,” providing viewers with quick but highly impressive and creative entertainment.
13. Sivamani: Rhythm is everything, everywhere: Sivamani, a percussion expert, performs one of TED’s most electrifying, innovative musical sets yet. He merges the musical traditions of myriad nations and utilizes instruments as diverse as water jugs, luggage and even the audience itself! One does not have to boast any musical training whatsoever to appreciate the man’s envious creativity and desire to experiment within his chosen art.
14. Naturally 7 beatboxes a whole band: In another seriously cool, highly creative TED performance, Naturally 7 brings their unique brand of hip-hop to the stage. Even those not into that particular genre will find themselves stunned by the impressive, completely a capella vocal play present in “Fly Baby.” Rather than playing any instruments, the band members provide their own rhythm and music through the underappreciated, exceptionally difficult art of beatboxing. The sheer talent and precision involved needs to be heard to be believed.
15. Caroline Phillips: Hurdy-gurdy for beginners: Though boasting a rich history dating back at least almost one millennium and encompassing a wide geographical range in Europe, few really know much of anything about the wheel fiddle, better known as the hurdy-gurdy. Its complex structure of strings plucked by a crank and wooden, piano-like keys has cropped up in numerous folk music traditions, but managed to slip into obscurity after a while. Caroline Phillip’s short but enlightening lecture brings this unique instrument to life, and her performance exposes audiences to a couple of old Basque songs from France and Spain — a truly interesting genre sadly outside many peoples’ peripherals.
16. Jakob Trollback rethinks the music video: By this point, music videos have become a familiar, if not essential, fiber in the musical tapestry. Like every other creative medium, it possesses its own set of conventions and cliches, but still carries a plethora of potential for new, artistic innovations. Some of them, however, tend to emphasize the cinematic element over the musical — a trend that disconcerts multimedia designer Jakob Trollback. His simple goals revolve around experimenting with the music video format to emphasize sound over sight. Along with two other designers, he created an excellent visual treat involving geometric shapes, lights and dynamic text that all enhance David Byrne and Brian Eno’s brilliance rather than distract.
17. Jose Abreu on kids transformed by music: Even those who never personally experienced or witnessed such situations still understand and appreciate the redemptive, therapeutic and wholly transmogrifying power of most things musical. For 30 years, Jose Abreu has fronted the El Sistema Orchestra, comprised of impoverished children from all across Venezuela. His admirable work, for which he received a TED Prize in 2009, provides them with opportunities to succeed in education (and, subsequently, life) through musical prowess. It breaks down social, political, economic, religious and racial barriers in order to teach them how to be a part of something greater than themselves and work tirelessly in the pursuit of a common goal. Many El Sistema alumni have gone on to perform with prestigious orchestras worldwide, but their dedication and passion also vastly improve their home communities as well. Abreu’s TED Prize wish asks for 50 more aspirant musicians to receive all the training necessary to promote justice in the world, in addition to a program similar to El Sistema organized in the United States. Though his work leads him to inspire children, this amazing man hopes that others will bring music therapy, education and career opportunities to other marginalized demographics, such as the ailing.
18. John Walker re-creates great performances: Another great video appealing to music aficionados and performers with a great love of technology and computers. Today’s recording features allow users to analyze more than just pitch and tone — some are so sophisticated they can even detect nuances in key pressure and pedal use. Subsequently, the information can be fed into a computerized piano which replicates the original human concerts almost flawlessly. This is an especially exciting development when it comes to preserving older recordings and classic performances whose age threatens their stability. Future generations can appreciate the movements, pieces and people who inspired and paved the way for today’s innovators.
19. David Holt plays mountain music: Take a trip down the Appalachian trail through the amazing folk music styling of David Holt. Along with his performance, the Grammy winner keeps alive the struggling oral storytelling tradition. He delivers an impressively insightful lecture diving deeply into the history of the music and folktales from the region, showcases the people and instruments that — to him — define Appalachia. Most, if not all, viewers and audience members will recognize the banjo’s importance. But they may not know much of anything about the “thunderwear” or the mouth bow. The real showstopper of the almost half-hour performance, however, remains the truly engaging, impassioned stories he tells. Such devotion to America’s melodic history prevents it from slipping into unfortunate, unfair obscurity.
20. Itau Talgam: Lead like the great conductors: Every conductor, excellent, terrible, or anywhere in between, has both a story and a leadership philosophy to share, and this extends far beyond their orchestras and choirs. This lecture explores how six different, highly acclaimed conductors approached the challenges of silently directing a group of musicians to meet a common goal. All of them offer valuable lessons to business types, activists and other organizers in need of a little inspiration, not just their peers in the industry. Students desiring a career involving music education will especially benefit from the information available here.

Musicians usually show up at rallies to protest labour rights but it is very rare for that protest to be at a guitar show! If you own a Cort, Fender, or Ibanez guitar you will want to read about labour relations at their Korean factory.

Embarrassingly, I have never thought about labour conditions in Asian guitar factories. I reflected a little on this after hearing about this action. I think I can boil it down to a blind-spot: because it is music, there couldn’t be anything truly negative surrounding it” I mean guitar making, what could be more pure a pursuit than that? But of course there are always material conditions associated with the creation of things, and thus why should large scale industrialised guitar making be any different than shoes? I own one custom made instrument, I know the maker personally, and I saw the guitar emerge from pieces of raw lumber to become the instrument I now play. I also own an excellent Korean made guitar, a G&L “Tribute” Series. I have now learned that this guitar was very likely manufactured in a Cort facility, I now find this embarrassing. I also now have to question all of the other guitar accessories I own. One thing is for sure, I can use the guitar as an entry point into discussions of labour conditions in guitar factories, commodity fetishism, ideology, and labour more generally — as I pull it out of the case, or if someone remarks on it, for example. In this way, perhaps the workers can speak through the instrument? I dunno.

There has always been a highly racialised discourse about the supposed superior quality of American made instruments over their Asian made counterparts. This is part of a far reaching discourse that characterises the American labourer as a craftsperson, working with his/her hands to extract a beautiful instrument from a block of carefully chosen wood. This is contrasted with the common perception (and realistic) of the Asian factory, with all its attendant “Toyotaisation” (just in time shipping, hyper-Taylorist factory organisation, etc.), and the suggestion that it is impossible for anything truly beautiful to come from such a technologically sophisticated organisational paradigm. Perhaps this perception of the Asian factory has aided in dehumanising the labour process. But it turns out that there are still actual people at the end of that line, working to bring instruments to aspiring and accomplished musicians alike. We need to think beyond the commodity fetish and acknowledge the chain of events and human actions that bring us our products, perhaps we need to do this even more so for things like instruments, to which we attach such mythologies of purity and beauty that further mystify the material conditions of their makers.

What you can do: http://axisofjustice.net/how-to-support-the-cort-workers-namm/

HIP-HOP NEWS spreads like any other mainstream NEWS in America. The garbage that’s unfit to print has now floated on websites and blogs like sh*t. For example a rapper working in the community gets obscured while if that same rapper robbed a gas station he’d get top coverage and be label a “rapper” while getting his upcoming or current music somewhat put on blast, regardless of its quality which of course is subjective like any other art. RAP sites and blogs are mimicking the New York POST.

It does the people of the planet little good to hear that an an artist is famous and rich, will wear expensive jewelry straight from the mines, show it off, stay it the hotel, ride in limos, do the VIP with chilled champagne in the clubs, ape and monkey the chicks (meaning not even talking) and keep the dudes away with slave paid bodyguards when real people come close.

Here, here, and here.

In the most recent development, a quick and dirty taxonomy of speculation and creativity:

Speculation and financialisation of:

1. Past, “public domain” works: here there are works that sneakily resist easy domestication. They are part of an “old school” way of thinking IP. Thus, they are kind of “grandfathered” in as universally accessible, part of an antiquated notion of serving the public good. But, they can be appropriated by capital for the cultural capital that accrues through their use. Case in point, many of the musical selections used in period pieces (I’m thinking Boardwalk Empire here). Also, such pieces can be used free of charge to create new works, which are made in the context of current IP frameworks and are thus more easily integrated into the profit machine. Speculation and financialisation can occur on future creative uses of older works. In this scenario, these stubborn old works must be tweaked in order to fit the needs of property.

2. Royalties on Past Works: as you say, tried and true and currently informing things like the Bowie Bonds and the SBCEA. Here, the global juridical apparatus is ensuring the future profitability of creative works that have already proven their viability, and betting on continued viability. The vast catalogues of recorded music already form a large part of the stock value of major labels and media companies. Here, the property referred to in intellectual property retains a tangibility. A song can be said to exist, and thus it can be made into property.

3. Future Economic Success: …of yet to be known creative work. Here’s where your Idol analogy seems to fit. A populist speculation in which the audiences of the idol show provide, free of charge of course, the “ethnographic” market research needed to determine future preferences. What is a talent show but the (emotional or financial) investment in one or another performer to win? Add some healthy betting and odds to this and you’ve got speculation on future success. Here, the wager builds on the notion of a mental property that exists, but as yet has no specific form. The bet is that it will take form, and that form will have some success according to the logic of exchange in the market for actualised creativity.

4. Future Potential Creativity: this is where marketisation is fully internalised, such that the very potential extant in every human being is what speculated on. From birth, bets are waged as to whether or not an individual will actualise that creative potential at all, or whether they won’t, and this is done regardless of form or potential for success in the market for acutalised creativity. Here the wager is on the moments between thought and action, on the affect itself. Thus, an investor stands to gain if a person steps into some predefined creative role as such: makes a recording, paints a painting, dances, etc. (Or stands to gain if they invest in the default swap option, where the bet is on the non-expression of the creativity.) Here the juridical apparatus takes steps to define and track creativity in order that they be accurately catalogued and reported back to the investment houses. First, through campaigns to achieve the full hegemony of the notion of intellectual property are waged so as to ensure that creativity itself is understood as a property before it takes on a form. Second, through the creation and maintenance of a marketplace for that property, a mental stock exchange if you will, in which potential creative actors are speculated upon. This could be with or without their knowledge, of course.

For the next two years the French govt will subsidize half – that’s right half – the cost of a 50 euro ($70 USD) card to be used to download music from approved subscription-based online retailers. Consumers will be limited to one card a year.

Somewhere between a social service debit card and a tax break, this strategy appears to be both an admission of powerlessness in the face of piracy and also an assertion of state involvement that on the surface seems to run counter the “hands off” anti-regulatory ethos of neoliberalism and the Sarkozy regime. Additionally, this is a great example of the intensification of state surveillance regimes, surely there must be a way to then gauge the “taste” of the nation, or even to index the number of music files a person possesses against the number they buy with the card – any discrepancy and its the gulag for you! Alas, it may also be another case of the state funneling of public resources toward private interests. And this time, instead of a bailout to the finance industry, this is a way to direct tax payers’ money toward “legitimate subscription-based services.” It’s hard not to see how this doesn’t amount to paying twice. It also doesn’t seem clear if this is about nurturing French cultural production specifically, or just ensuring that for-profit distributors get a slice of the pie. However, in exchange for state aid

website operators will be required to cut the price of music, extend the duration of subscriptions, and contribute to the cost of advertising the card. Their benefit will be capped at 5 million euros each.

That said it also seems a rather ingenious way to promote cultural awareness and listening to music. I can’t imagine a British or North American government so blatantly funding the consumption of artistic work. Here we cut arts funding and gut humanities departments in universities. What else could be next: a tax break for every theatre ticket purchased? A granting system for reading materials? Still, if there’s a mood for state involvement these days, why not a lump sum to the download services and performing rights agencies via a blank media levy like we had on blank tapes and CDs and then let everyone download away? I’ve seen studies that suggest support for this. Or, even better, why not scrap the whole notion of state support for for-profit entities (not very “free market” anyway is it?) and instead support people with a universal living minimum wage that would also account for the purchase of cultural/creative works, which, following food, I’d say are pretty important for a well-nourished soul.

See also here.

The problem I have with articles like this is that they begin with the now axiomatic premise “The Internet has changed everything” and then largely go on to show how little if anything has really changed at all. Here, the woes of the recorded music industry are put into perspective. Despite a decline in recorded music sales (which were really artificially enhanced by the phenomenon of replacing old LPs and Tapes with CDs in the 90s), other areas of the industry are thriving – touring revenues are up, merchandising is the new profitable thing along with tour sponsorships, while listeners who might be “worth nothing” to the industry as pirates are now “worth a little” if they respond to advertising on free streaming applications like Spotify. So, we have a here a shift of profit from one based around the sale of physical media, to one based on the proliferation of the symbolic: we pay more for concerts – the price of tickets has far outstripped inflation – which are evanescent, immaterial. We buy clothing (the elementary commodity form) and we pay for the privilege to be advertised to by the music’s sponsors. But, don’t worry, in all of this the raison d’être of the music industry as such remains: profit. Change indeed!

The problem in this article is that the change is superficial, and it betrays an ignorance of some of the fundamental alterations that have been made, outside of the narrow mainstream music industry scope. Of course, the Economist can only think in terms of the profit paradigm, because it is so dominant. (That said, the acknowledgment of age and the superstar factor are important, and I think under-recognized in the turmoils of the record industry.)

But, in other areas of music distribution online, i.e. “piracy,” with a shift in perspective we could see that a lot more is working in music than merely its function as a conduit for profit. It travels faster to a wider audience, unencumbered by the barriers and limits that are set in place by the industry infrastructure and the profit motive. It occupies a central position in the development of online musical discourse, and acts as a common ground for many online “communities.” A vibrant and self-regulating community of “pirates” has emerged that privileges obligation, reciprocity, and “sharing” over profit. Indeed, the power of autonomous music distribution online is acknowledged by the IFPI who say that “the pool of pirates is so huge at present (IFPI, an international trade group, reckons that 19 out of every 20 tracks downloaded are illegal) that it ought to be possible to make serious money from persuading people to make the switch.” This is just pure jealousy. People are out there doing things that the industry finds difficult to monetise, nothing gets the ire of a business up more than that – people doing things better without their help. (Of course doing these things helps the computing industry immensely…another topic).

The trick here is that people ought not to be persuaded. Real change that doesn’t just shift the profits from one sector to the other, with music still in the position of commodity, but one that recognises the full import of music and doesn’t diminish this in the commodity form could be hastened by the even further entrenchment and emulation of pirate practices not just in the distribution of music but in the wresting of control over the production and technological infrastructures that undergird it. Let’s look outside the mainstream adaptation of “flexibile specialisation” and “vertical integration” to alternative practices for inspiration here.