Democracy of Sound
Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century
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Democracy of Sound
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Narrated by:
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Aaron Abano
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By:
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Alex Cummings
About this listen
It was a time when music fans copied and traded recordings without permission. An outraged music industry pushed Congress to pass anti-piracy legislation. Yes, that time is now; it was also the era of Napster in the 1990s, of cassette tapes in the 1970s, of reel-to-reel tapes in the 1950s, even the phonograph epoch of the 1930s. Piracy, it turns out, is as old as recorded music itself. In Democracy of Sound, Alex Sayf Cummings uncovers the little-known history of music piracy and its sweeping effects on the definition of copyright in the United States. When copyright emerged, only visual material such as books and maps were thought to deserve protection; even musical compositions were not included until 1831. Once a performance could be captured on a wax cylinder or vinyl disc, profound questions arose over the meaning of intellectual property.
Is only a written composition defined as a piece of art? If a singer performs a different interpretation of a song, is it a new and distinct work? Such questions have only grown more pressing with the rise of sampling and other forms of musical pastiche. Indeed, music has become the prime battleground between piracy and copyright. It is compact, making it easy to copy. And it is highly social, shared or traded through social networks - often networks that arise around music itself.
But such networks also pose a counter-argument: as channels for copying and sharing sounds, they were instrumental in nourishing hip-hop and other new forms of music central to American culture today. Piracy is not always a bad thing. An insightful and often entertaining look at the history of music piracy, Democracy of Sound offers invaluable background to one of the hot-button issues involving creativity and the law.
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 52
As Glenn Altschuler reveals in All Shook Up, the rise of rock 'n roll--and the outraged reception to it--in fact can tell us a lot about the values of the United States in the 1950s, a decade that saw a great struggle for the control of popular culture. Altschuler shows, in particular, how rock's "switchblade beat" opened up wide fissures in American society along the fault-lines of family, sexuality, and race.
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4 out of 5 stars
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50's Rock&Roll was more of a force than I thought
- By James on 10-19-11
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Captive Audience
- By: Susan P. Crawford
- Narrated by: Carol Hendrickson
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great info, dry delivery
- By Chase Vaughan on 02-12-16
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With Amusement for All
- A History of American Popular Culture since 1830
- By: LeRoy Ashby
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 33 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
With Amusement for All is the first comprehensive history of two centuries of mass entertainment in the United States, covering everything from the penny press to Playboy, the NBA to NASCAR, big band to hip hop, and other topics including film, comics, television, sports, and music. Paying careful attention to matters of race, gender, class, economics, and politics, LeRoy Ashby emphasizes the complex ways in which popular culture simultaneously reflects and transforms American culture.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So Much Fun!
- By Paul on 11-28-13
By: LeRoy Ashby
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Blockbusters
- Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment
- By: Anita Elberse
- Narrated by: Renee Raudman
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4 out of 5 stars 88
What's behind the phenomenal success of entertainment businesses such as Warner Bros., Marvel Entertainment, and the NFL — along with such stars as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James? Which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge over their rivals? Anita Elberse, Harvard Business School's expert on the entertainment industry, has done pioneering research on the worlds of media and sports for more than a decade. Now, in this groundbreaking audiobook, she explains a powerful truth about the fiercely competitive world of entertainment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I love the autobook the only thing I have
- By brycesp on 03-31-17
By: Anita Elberse
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World Without Mind
- The Existential Threat of Big Tech
- By: Franklin Foer
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 254
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 219
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Story4 out of 5 stars 216
Franklin Foer reveals the existential threat posed by big tech, and in his brilliant polemic gives us the toolkit to fight their pervasive influence. Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. This rapid change has imperiled the way we think. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. We shop with Amazon, socialize on Facebook, turn to Apple for entertainment, and rely on Google for information.
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5 out of 5 stars
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5-Star Book with a 1-Star Title
- By David Larson on 09-18-17
By: Franklin Foer
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All the Rave
- The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster
- By: Joseph Menn
- Narrated by: John Rubinstein
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4 out of 5 stars 94
The definitive inside account of the file-sharing revolution that overthrew the music industry, All the Rave reveals the family betrayal, greed, and mismanagement that hijacked one the most fundamental innovations of the Internet era. Named one of the three best books of 2003 by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., All the Rave has been out of print until now and unavailable in most formats. Author and veteran technology journalist Joseph Menn also wrote 2010's Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords who are Bringing Down the Internet.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Far-reaching Karma of Napster
- By Susie on 04-29-13
By: Joseph Menn
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The New Analog
- Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World
- By: Damon Krukowski
- Narrated by: Damon Krukowski
- Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Having made his name in the late 1980s as a member of the indie band Galaxie 500, Damon Krukowski has watched cultural life lurch from analog to digital. And as an artist who has weathered the transition, he has challenging, urgent questions for both creators and consumers about what we have thrown away in the process.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very Interesting!
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 07-02-17
By: Damon Krukowski
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Service Games
- The Rise and Fall of SEGA: Enhanced Edition
- By: Sam Pettus
- Narrated by: Tom Racine
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 206
New Edition! More content, images, and corrected text and facts. Monochrome edition. Starting with its humble beginnings in the 1950s and ending with its swan-song, the Dreamcast, in the early 2000s, this is the complete history of Sega as a console maker. Before home computers and video game consoles, before the Internet and social networking, and before motion controls and smartphones, there was Sega.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Story of the Fall of Sega
- By Austin on 01-05-15
By: Sam Pettus
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Writing on the Wall
- Social Media: The First 2,000 Years
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Papyrus rolls and Twitter have much in common, as each was their generation's signature means of "instant" communication. Indeed, as Tom Standage reveals in his scintillating new audiobook, social media is anything but a new phenomenon. From the papyrus letters that Roman statesmen used to exchange news across the Empire to the advent of hand-printed tracts of the Reformation to the pamphlets that spread propaganda during the American and French revolutions, Standage chronicles the increasingly sophisticated ways people shared information with each other....
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5 out of 5 stars
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technology changes, we don't
- By Andy on 12-02-13
By: Tom Standage
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Americana
- A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
- By: Bhu Srinivasan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Bhu Srinivasan
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 634
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 553
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Story5 out of 5 stars 544
From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a 400-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition through a series of Next Big Things - the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking, to flight, suburbia, and sneakers, culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the turn of the 21st century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent history!
- By L. Maranto on 10-14-17
By: Bhu Srinivasan
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Cowboys and Indies
- The Epic History of the Record Industry
- By: Gareth Murphy
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
Cowboys and Indies is the definitive record-business bible, chronicling the pioneers who set the stylus on the most important labelsand musical discoveries of the last century. The narrative follows all the musical trends and developments from the phonograph to the Internet age as it delves behind the big business of corporate hit machines and the diligent industry of small, curated labels.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Epic, yet incomplete.
- By Rob G. on 10-14-14
By: Gareth Murphy
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Never a Dull Moment
- 1971 - the Year That Rock Exploded
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: David Hepworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 215
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
On New Year's Eve, 1970, Paul McCartney told his lawyers to issue the writ at the High Court in London, effectively ending The Beatles. You might say this was the last day of the pop era. The following day, which was a Friday, was 1971. You might say this was the first day of the rock era. And within the remaining 364 days of this monumental year, the world would hear Don McLean's "American Pie", The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar", The Who's "Baba O'Riley", Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", and more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A blast from the past
- By Amazon Customer on 07-30-16
By: David Hepworth
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Buying In
- The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are
- By: Rob Walker
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 53
Marketing executives and consumer advocates alike predict a future of brand-proof consumers, armed with technology and a sophisticated understanding of marketing techniques, who can effectively tune out ad campaigns. But as Rob Walker demonstrates, this widely accepted misconception has eclipsed the real changes in the way modern consumers relate to their brands of choice. Combine this with marketers' new ability to blur the line between advertising, entertainment, and public space, and you have dramatically altered the relationship between consumer and consumed.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lets you in on the secret...
- By Jeff on 07-06-08
By: Rob Walker
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Little Rice
- Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream
- By: Clay Shirky
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Since the 1990s China has been climbing up the ladder of quality, from doing knockoffs to designing its own high-end goods. Xiaomi - its name literally means "little rice" - is landing squarely in this shift in China's economy. But the remarkable rise of Xiaomi from startup to colossus is more than a business story because mobile phones are special. The common desiderata of the global population, mobile phones offer the kind of freedom and connectedness that autocratic countries are terrified of.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Informative and up to date.
- By Kevin on 01-10-16
By: Clay Shirky
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Allen Klein
- The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll
- By: Fred Goodman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Allen Klein was like no one the music industry had seen before. The hard-nosed business manager became infamous for allegedly catalyzing the Beatles' breakup and robbing the Rolling Stones, but the truth is both more complex and more fascinating.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Beatles' & Rolling Stones' Big Bad Manager
- By tru britty on 07-05-15
By: Fred Goodman
What listeners say about Democracy of Sound
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- petertess
- 03-10-19
What Once Was Must be gone We'll get along somehow
Most imformative and educative. A positive outlook for all musicians copyrights concerns. Stay opened minded and listen . The considerations of potential success and flourish in music today.
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