Criminalizing Independent Music

Revision with unchanged content. Music industry executives have been the main gatekeepers in determining what music is available to consumers since the advent of the gramophone. As major record labels have become more highly consolidated, there has been an increasing concentration of those who determine what music is available for consumption. With the development of online music distribution, a gap has formed where independent artists can distribute their music by bypassing the costly hard media distribution system. This book explores how the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is used by the major record labels to limit the access that independent artists/labels have to consumers through the internet. It argues that in the process through which the music industry works to co-opt and commodify genres of music, the music is (de)politicized to appeal to a larger audience. This study is geared towards those interested in the music industry, commodification and intellectual property policies.