ABSTRACT
The digitalization of music is not a “revolution.” Contrary to the inflated rhetoric that has accompanied the rise of the information technology sector in the early years of the twenty-first century, digitalization has been, in fact, a relatively long, transformative process of economic, technological, social and cultural change that has taken place over a half-century or more. In this sense, the digitalization of music should be regarded not as the result of a singular technological innovation (the development of MP3 file compression or the internet) nor the apparent rise of new forms of consumer power (file-sharing) but, rather, as a series of more or less distinct transformations that have occurred at different times and across a number of different areas of musical practice, including the composition, performance, recording, distribution and reception of music. Furthermore, while it could be argued that virtually every form of music making has been affected in some way by the processes of digitalization, these transformations have taken place unevenly across different genres of music, and across different social groups and industrial sectors. Taken as a whole, however, the digitalization of music has deep implications not only for how we make and experience music, but also for how we conceive of it as a form of cultural activity and as an object of study. This chapter will provide an understanding of processes of digitalization from the perspective of musicians as social actors engaged in the production of music through technological means, the recording and representation of digital audio, the institutional and economic organization of music as a commodity form, and the activities of audiences as they experience music and negotiate their relationships as fans.
