ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an extensive overview of key scholarly debates in the field of music use and the Internet, introducing central strands of analysis as well as previous research in the area, and synthesizing debates about music streaming as a delivery system and as a form of music consumption. The chapter is divided into three main and overlapping themes, starting with an outline of analysis of the music industry in the age of the Internet, discussing questions around its reconfiguration and structural disruption, to then move on to enquiry into changes to music formats and music as a cultural form. The final part of the chapter deals with questions of the Internet as a basis for music use – central to the book as a whole – looking at previous research on piracy and online fan cultures, as well as work on ubiquitous music and uses of music-streaming services. Overall, the chapter highlights how ideas about the role of the Internet to social, cultural, and ontological dimensions of music connect to overarching debates about the relation between media, culture, and technology, where music streaming has introduced new questions that motivate the design and relevance of the volume at hand.
