Making Music in the Age of Information Capitalism

Public lecture by D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, University of Leeds.

Hundreds of millions of people across the world now experience music via ‘streaming services’, which offer on-demand access, by means of internet or mobile telephony, to vast catalogues of music, either ‘free’ (advertising-supported) or via subscription. A controversial but poorly-understood new system of music production, distribution and consumption has developed around such services, yet there has been no sustained, integrated analysis of this system, the considerable international variations within it, nor its effects on musical culture. This analysis is the aim of MUSICSTREAM, an ERC funded research project mainly focused on the UK and China, but also bringing together research from across the world via collaborative publication. The project offers an ambitious empirical and theoretical analysis that will also contribute to understanding how culture, political economy and technology interact in the digital era. Undertaking such a project requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates analysis of the changing media industries, including new conditions for music creators, and changes in the way people make music. This seminar will provide an overview of the MUSICSTREAM project, discuss the key characteristics of the new musical system, and review our overall approach to studying digital music and culture. It will emphasise the stream of the project focused on platforms, policy, and music production informed by legal scholar Julie Cohen’s critical political economy framework of information capitalism.

Biography

Bondy Valdovinos Kaye (he/they) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds working on MUSICSTREAM (2022-2026). Kaye holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Music Performance (2014) and a Master of Science in Mass Communications (2016) from Kansas State University (USA). Kaye completed a PhD in Creative Industries in 2021 at Queensland University of Technology (Australia). Kaye’s doctoral research examines music creators and copyright law in Myanmar, interrogating the colonial legacy and power dynamics of copyright in informal media industries. Kaye is the author of TikTok: Creativity and Culture in Short Video (2022, with Jing Zeng and Patrik Wikström), the first scholarly monograph on TikTok published by Polity Press. Kaye has published peer-reviewed journal articles on topics including short video platforms and patriotism in China, media censorship in India, and copyright enforcement on YouTube. Kaye is the drummer, bassist, and co-songwriter for the band Parallel Path.