Music on the internet: decentralization and control

Abstract

Recent changes in the record music industry should be perceived as the retreat of the phonographic industry from the center of a varied range of businesses that involves the economic exploitation of music. Such a descentralization led many to understand it as the end of control, as the total freedom on the access to music, under the argument that there would no longer be the label and physical store to filter the offer and the access. In such a scenario, it has been supposed that “people” became the new power holder and terms like “people empowerment” comes to be usual on the music market that circulates on the net. However, as we look at access on websites and even at the consuming of musical products, we notice that such an openness does not reflect the intense funneling of what is accessed. If the phonographic industry lost its condition on filtering what is heard, how does such a funneling comes to be? Taking as a base the idea of micro-powers by Michel Foucault, we intend to show that the power practiced by the internet user, at the moment of surfing, leads to this scenario. That’s how we may notice that, actually, descentralization does not mean lack of control.