Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id844786215
there are a small number of mammoth companies hegemonizing the entertainment industry.
✏️ Just as with tech, and xref the french fries cartel article as well. 🔗 View Highlight
id844786401
the lesser-known practice of “song management” investment firms vacuuming up beloved hits for the purpose of licensing or resale. DeWaard names Hipgnosis, a company headquartered in London, as the most aggressive of these firms, with 64,000 songs under its control, one thousand of which were number-one hits. Company partner and funk legend Nile Rodgers has presented it to investors as an opportunity “to establish songs as an uncorrelated asset class with attractive risk[-adjusted] returns”
✏️ They found a way to turn songs into an asset class that can make money thru investment/equity means? xref with all the ways that private equity firms find ways to make money off of every single thing they can think of, tangible or otherwise (even lawsuits related to black lung, etc.) 🔗 View Highlight
id844786671
Maverick music producer Steve Albini, known during his life to refuse royalties on the music of his clients, once put it like this:
The single best thing that has happened in my lifetime in music, after punk rock, is being able to share music, globally for free. There won’t ever be a mass-market record industry again, and that’s fine with me because that industry didn’t operate for the benefit of the musicians or the audience, the only classes of people I care about.
✏️ It’s all about perspective, especially when it comes to laws. Who’s benefiting and who’s being hurt, and where do the power differentials lie? 🔗 View Highlight