Browsing by Author "Froehlich, Anke Hilde"

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    Copyriot: the political economy of digital music streaming
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Froehlich, Anke Hilde; Froneman, Willemien; Lambrechts, Lizabe; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis, based on a discourse analysis of recent scholarship in the fields of popular music studies, international legal theory, and economic-political theory, analyses the political economy of online music streaming, focussing on Spotify’s playlist-oriented business approach. By tracing the shift in the digital music industry from ‘scarcity’ to ‘abundance’, I argue – following the work of Eric Drott (2019) – for a revised understanding of music’s commodification in the digital streaming era. The analysis proceeds along two lines. The first asks how, from a Marxist perspective, Spotify’s practices of rentiership, its positioning within the ‘gig’ economy and its relationship to the so-called ‘Big Three’ record companies may be situated within the circuit of capital, while the second, which draws on the work of Robin James (2021), Friedlind Riedel (2020) and William Mazzarella (2017), considers the affective dimensions of Spotify’s streaming business strategy – particularly its curation of ‘vibes’. Additionally, the thesis offers a historical overview of the hierarchical structure of music copyright law that continues to privilege record companies, showing how music copyright is rooted in Mussollini’s Fascist politics. The study concludes that Spotify harnesses what Martin Scherzinger (2016) has termed music’s ‘experiential liveness’ to produce ‘mana’ moments by engaging users in activity-oriented listening.