Abstracts
Abstract
Using research on the political economy of the music industries, interviews with independent musicians about their lived experiences, and the authors' experience participating in government copyright consultations in Canada, this article discusses how the market power of major music companies, and their capture of the policy-making process through lobbying, has made copyright reform an extremely limited avenue for remedying the variety of hardships facing musicians in the streaming media era. Against the continued consolidation and concentration of power within the music industries, we explore a case study of Edmonton Public Library’s Capital City Records as an alternative model that may inspire further initiatives that advocate for artists and users. We conclude by discussing a commons-based, public infrastructure and governance model that could serve as a tool to circumvent uneven power dynamics in the music industries, facilitate stronger music communities, and provide sustainable livelihoods for working musicians in Canada.
Keywords:
- music industry,
- copyright,
- public libraries,
- commons
Résumé
En s’appuyant sur des recherches sur l’économie politique des industries de la musique, sur des entrevues avec des musiciens indépendants sur leurs expériences vécues et sur l’expérience des auteurs qui ont participé à des consultations gouvernementales sur le droit d’auteur au Canada, cet article examine comment le pouvoir de marché des grandes entreprises de musique et leur mainmise sur le processus d’élaboration des politiques par le biais du lobbying ont fait de la réforme du droit d’auteur une approche extrêmement limitée pour remédier aux diverses difficultés auxquelles sont confrontés les musiciens à l’ère des médias en continu. Contre la consolidation et la concentration continues du pouvoir au sein des industries de la musique, nous explorons une étude de cas de Capital City Records de la bibliothèque publique d’Edmonton comme un modèle alternatif qui peut servir d’inspiration pour d’autres initiatives qui défendent les artistes et les utilisateurs. Nous terminons en discutant d’un modèle de gouvernance et d’infrastructure publique basé sur la notion de carrefour qui pourrait servir d’outil pour contourner les dynamiques de pouvoir inégales dans les industries de la musique, faciliter le renforcement des communautés musicales et fournir des moyens de subsistance durables aux musiciens actifs au Canada.
Mots-clés :
- industrie de la musique,
- droit d’auteur,
- bibliothèques publiques,
- carrefours
Download the article in PDF to read it.
Download
Appendices
Bibliography
- Annable, K., & Lee, D. (2017, April 11) Manitoba budget’s cuts to arts, sports programs a “haircut,” says minister. CBC News.
- Bishop, K. (2020, January 31). Opinion: UCP branding Alberta as place devoid of arts. Edmonton Journal.
- Bode, K. (2018, August 30). This music theory professor just showed how stupid and broken copyright filters are. Vice: Motherboard.
- Byager, L. (2018, December 4). Spotify just released this year’s most-streamed artists and they’re all male. Mashable.
- Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee On Canadian Heritage. (2018) Minutes of Proceedings. 42nd Parliament, 1st sess., meeting no. 114.
- Canadian Heritage. (2021, August 31). Review and reform of the Copyright Act. Government of Canada.
- Canadian Association of Research Libraries. (2019). CARL statement on the INDU report on the Copyright Act.
- Canadian Press. (2019, April 28). Ontario Music Fund being cut by more than half by the province. Hamilton Spectator.
- Carey, H., Florisson, R., Brien, D.O., & Lee, N. (2020, August 27). Getting in and getting on: Class, participation and job quality in the UK creative industries. Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre.
- Carling, M. (2019, December 20). Modernizing the copyright act – a look back on 2019. IP Osgoode.
- Cooper, R. (2021, March 26) The case for music.gov. The Week.
- Craig, C., & Tarantino, B. (2020). An hundred stories in ten days: COVID-19 lessons for culture, learning, and copyright law. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 57(3).
- Christman, E. (2015, October 10). Q3 SoundScan report: Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars dominate, streaming surges. Billboard.
- Cultural Capital Project. (n.d.) Data.
- Dahlman, I. (2012). Towards a stewardship of digital music. The Cultural Capital Project.
- deWaard, A., Fauteux, B., & Selman, B. (2021). Independent Canadian music in the streaming age: The sound from above (critical political economy) and below (ethnography of musicians). Popular Music and Society.
- Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committees. (n.d.). Impact of COVID-19 on DCMS sectors. The Parliament of the United Kingdom.
- Ettarh, F. (2018). Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves. In the Library with the Lead Pipe.
- Fauteux, B., Selman, B., & deWaard, A. (2018, December 12). Putting users and small-scale creators first in Canadian copyright law and beyond: A brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage regarding remuneration models for artists and creative industries.
- Fauteux, B., Selman, B., & deWaard, A. (2018, December 10). Putting users and small-scale creators first in Canadian copyright law and beyond: A brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology regarding Statutory Review of the Copyright Act. WinnSpace, The University of Winnipeg institutional repository.
- Fauteux, B., Dahlman, I., & deWaard, A. (2013). The Cultural Capital Project: Radical monetization of the music industry. IASPM Journal, 3(1).
- Flynn, J., Giblin, R., & Petitjean, F. (2019). What happens when books enter the public domain? Testing copyright’s underuse hypothesis across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. UNSW Law Journal, 42(4).
- Future of Music Coalition (n.d) . Artists Revenue Streams Project: "Money from music" survey [Data portal].
- Geist, M. (2018, October 29). Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 4: New Taxes or Fees on Digital Devices. Michaelgeist.ca.
- Geist, M. (2019, June 3). The authoritative Canadian copyright review: Industry committee issues balanced, forward-looking report on the future of Canadian copyright law. Michaelgeist.ca.
- Geist, M. (2021, May 25). The Bill C-10 effect: Why Canadian consumers face a future of Cancon surcharges and blocked services. Michaelgeist.ca.
- Guibert, G., & Hyde, I. (2021, January). ANALYSIS: COVID-19’s impacts on arts and culture. National Endowment for the Arts.
- Heald, P. J. (2021). The impact of implementing a 25-year reversion/termination right In Canada. Journal of Intellectual Property Law, 28(1).
- Hill Strategies Research. (2019, November 27). A statistical profile of artists in Canada in 2016 (Statistical Insights on the Arts No. 49).
- Hill Strategies Research. (2020, January 29). Demographic diversity of artists in Canada in 2016 (Statistical Insights on the Arts No. 51).
- Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada. (2021). Consultation paper on how to implement an extended general term of copyright protection in Canada. Government of Canada.
- International Publishers Association. (2019). Canada: Mixed copyright review report from Industry Committee. International Publishers Association.
- Knopf, H. (2019, May 15). The Canadian House of Commons copyright “Shifting Paradigms” report – let’s just call it the “Values Gap” report”. Excess Copyright.
- Krueger, A. B. (2019). Rockonomics: a backstage tour of what the music industry can teach us about economics and life. Currency.
- Krueger, A. B., & Zhen, Y. (2018, June 19). MIRA survey of musicians. Music Industry Research Association.
- Landes, W .M., & Posner, R. A. (1989). An economic analysis of copyright law. Journal of Legal Studies, 18(2), pp. 325–363.
- Lord Amalthean [@LordAmalthean]. (2021, June 22). While I enjoy Disney/Marvel greatly... They lately sent me copyright strikes on redbubble, for my FACE. Saying it infringed their trademark?! [Tweet]. Twitter.
- Lum, Z. (2018, September 18). Bryan Adams asks MPs to change 1 word in Copyright Act. HuffPost Canada.
- Moore, S. (2018). The ‘care-full’ commons. In J. Deville, S. Moore, & T. Nadim (Eds.). The commons and care (pp. 16–25). Mattering Press.
- Mulligan, M. (2014, March). The death of the long tail: The superstar music economy. MIDiA Consulting.
- Music Canada. (n.d.). About. Music Canada.
- Pelly, L. (2021, February 16). Socialized streaming. RealLife Mag.
- Pollock, R. (2009, June 15). Forever minus a day? Calculating optimal copyright term. University of Cambridge.
- Popowich, S. (2019). Confronting the democratic discourse of librarianship. Library Juice Press.
- Seale, M. (2013). The neoliberal library. In L. Gregory & S. Higgins (Eds.), Information literacy and social justice: Radical professional praxis (pp. 39–61). Library Juice Press.
- Selman, B., Fauteux, B., & deWaard, A. (2021, March 9). A user-centric case for rights reversions and other mitigations: The Cultural Capital Project submission to ISED consultation on term extension. WinnSpace, The University of Winnipeg institutional repository.
- Sheppard, A. (2019, June 20). Highlights from the report on the Copyright Act review. The Quad.
- Sinnreich, A. (2015). Music cartels and the dematerialization of power. In A. Bennett & B. Waksman (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of popular music (pp. 613–628). Sage.
- Smith, D. (2020, September 10). 1% of artists generate 90% of all music streams, latest data shows. Digital Music News.
- Smith, S., Choueiti, M., & Pieper, K. (2018, January). Inclusion in the recording studio? Gender and race/ethnicity of artists, songwriters & producers across 600 popular songs from 2012–2017. Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
- Sound Diplomacy. (2020, October). West Anthem music ecosystem study.
- Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid. Verso Press.
- Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. (2018, April 10). Renumeration models for artists and creative industries in the context of copyright [Press release].
- Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. (2019). Shifting paradigms (CHPC Report No. 19). Parliament of Canada.
- Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. (2019). Statutory Review of the Copyright Act (INDU Report No. 16). Parliament of Canada.
- Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. (2019, June 18). On Shifting Paradigms [Press release].
- Stasen, M. (2019, March 13). The global record industry generated $18.8bn last year – with 31% going to Universal Music Group. Music Business Worldwide.
- Szalai, G. (2020, August 10). SiriusXM parent Liberty Media swings to loss amid pandemic. Billboard.
- Tarantino, B. (2015, June 24). The complexities of Canada's extension of copyright protection for sound recordings. Entertainment & Media Law Signal.
- Thompson, D. (2014, December). The Shazam effect. The Atlantic.
- Tronto, J. C., & Fisher, B. (1990). Toward a feminist theory of caring. In E. Abel & M. Nelson (Eds.), Circles of care (pp. 36–54). SUNY Press. Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committees. (n.d.). Impact of COVID-19 on DCMS sectors. The Parliament of the United Kingdom.
- Varian, H. (2005). Copying and copyright. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(2), 121–138.
- Worldwide Independent Network. (2018). Worldwide Independent Market Report (WINTEL) 2018.