Composers who use crowdsourcing tools to generate musical material might be pushing technological boundaries, but this model of creative sharing is an illusion – and one that reinforces, rather than breaks down, hierarchies.
A new generation of field recordists is challenging the myth of the invisible figure with a microphone in work that celebrates presence rather than absence.
Neil Young's Pono player is the latest entry in a debate over the fidelity of digital sound which simplifies the relationship between the medium of music and its experiential message. By Philip Brophy.
Reasserting the roots of Kraftwerk’s sound in African-American R&B and jazz reveals how the soul of electronic dance music is being throttled by the dead hand of the culture industry. By Tony Herrington
Newly released recordings of experimental music from the 1960s say more about our own time than the moment of their creation, argues David Grubbs.
Jazz is radical music, so why is it funded by big business? asks Dan Spicer.
When funding bodies treat culture as a business enterprise, their insistence on results discriminates against music’s true value, argues Richards.
The recent boom in vinyl merely reflects business’s desire to extract maximum commodity value from ‘manufactured rarities’. But, ask Numero Group’s Rob Sevier and Ken Shipley, what happens to the music when the bubble bursts?
As the Topic label prepares to put its vast archive online, Alex Neilson sees unexpected connections between folk music's pluralist roots and the new routes promised by digital culture.
Mark Fell argues that the limits of technological systems do not frustrate creativity.
As recording formats become obsolete, sound archivists are rethinking the paradigms around methods of preserving our audio heritage. By Will Prentice of the British Library.
Digital transparency has revealed dimensions to African music beyond Western received ideas. But how to market it sympathetically, asks Brian Shimkovitz
Circulating music as resource-free downloads might reduce carbon footprints, but the fast turnover of the computers, MP3 players and mobile phones we play them on costs the Earth plenty, argues Phil England.
When John Richards of Dirty Electronics began manufacturing interactive sound devices such as a hand-held analogue synth, he tapped into a participatory social experiment in revitalising digitally numbed senses
In the early 2000s, increased bandwidth allowed recombinant artists to enter the gift economy. It’s a freedom we should defend at all costs, argues Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us
Don’t confuse online culture with digital culture, argues Terre Thaemlitz, whose latest project pushes the MP3 format to its absolute limits.
Bulk giveaways of music online make it impossible for listeners to make any sense of an artist’s work, argues James Kirby
File sharers uploading rare and out of print records challenge official histories of music by confronting hand-me-down narratives with the source artefacts, argues Mutant Sounds blogger Eric Lumbleau.
The culture of copying is intrinsic to all music, argues Marcus Boon. So get over it – copyright buccaneers are roadtesting creative alternatives to obsolete capitalist models.
Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner hails the new community spirit of social networking sites that encourage direct communications between artists and listeners.