Böcker av David Arditi

Digital Feudalism explores this new moment in capitalism, and how reliant global economies have become on these processes of consumption, work, and debt.

The explosion of services such as Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Apple Music, Amazon Prime and YouTube, which allow us to access content at the click of a button, has turned the norms surrounding cultural consumption upside down. How has this shift to an apparently unending supply of content affected the way we consume our favourite binge-worthy show, blockbuster movie or hot new album release? Positioning streaming alongside a major shift to contemporary capitalism, David Arditi demonstrates that streaming platforms have created an economy where consumers pay more for the same amount of consumptive time. Encouraging us to look beyond the seemingly limitless supply of multimedia content, Arditi calls attention to the underlying dynamics of instant viewing - in which our access to content depends on any given service's willingness, and ability, to license it.

Contrary to arguments by the Recording Industry Association of America, this book posits major record labels led the change to digital music to strengthen profits. This updated edition explores both the transitions to the download era and the streaming era for recorded music.

The belief that signing a record contract will almost infallibly lead to some measure of success- the "ideology of getting signed," as Arditi defines it-is alive and well. Though streaming, social media, and viral content have turned the recording industry upside down in one sense, the record contract and its mythos still persist.

iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Digital Era sheds light on the way large corporations appropriate new technologies related to recording and distribution of audio material to maintain their market dominance in a capitalist system.