{"id":3018,"date":"2005-06-19T02:11:19","date_gmt":"2005-06-19T06:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/2005\/06\/19\/from-mixtape-to-playlist\/"},"modified":"2005-06-19T02:11:19","modified_gmt":"2005-06-19T06:11:19","slug":"from-mixtape-to-playlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/2005\/06\/19\/from-mixtape-to-playlist\/","title":{"rendered":"From Mixtape to Playlist"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, the long tail<\/a> is all the rage, and for good reason.  If you have not been reading Chris Anderson’s blog<\/a>, I highly recommend you get caught up (about 70,000 words worth of catching up<\/a>).  <\/p>\n

The implications for the content industries, including music, are
\nprofound.  No longer are people limited to what’s on the shelves
\nof their local Walmart, nor need they rely heavily on TV and radio to
\nbecome exposed to the newest works.  iTunes has practically
\ninfinite capacity and the costs of distribution are slim. 
\nConsumers have an increasingly diverse array of tools to acquire and
\nbecome exposed to music.  Niche artists may be more able to reach
\ntheir niche audiences. Distributors may be able to aggregate those
\naudiences into a sizable revenue stream.  Consumers may be able to
\nbetter satisfy their tastes and enjoy a greater diversity of music than
\never before.<\/p>\n

As Chris Anderson explains, the falling costs of storage and
\ndistribution along with the wide variety of available music by
\nthemselves are not enough to drive people down the tail.  Rather,
\nconsumers need better systems for separating the signal from the noise<\/a>.  Myriad recommendation systems<\/a> are already emerging to do just that.<\/p>\n

I’ve become rather excited by and begun to study a subset of these
\nnew recommendation tools.  Through various tools and services –
\nincluding playlists<\/a>, mp3 blogs<\/a>, podcasts<\/a>, webcasts<\/a>, social networking,<\/a> and small group networks<\/a>, among<\/a> others<\/a>
\n– consumers are able to publish and share their own tastes with each
\nother.  In some cases, that means just sharing a themed list of
\nmusic; in others it means sharing a link to actual content; sometimes
\nit involves sharing content itself.  Beyond separating signal from
\nnoise, these tools have other potential cultural upshots that are
\nworthy of particular attention.<\/p>\n

First, these tools encourage consumer creativity. We often talk
\nabout the wonders of remix culture, but plain old mix culture is
\ncreative too.  Sharing tastes can be an act of self-expression. We
\nhave probably all experienced this in the context of making mixtapes from
\nfriends. As Rebecca Tushnet explains<\/a>,
\n“Making a mix CD is participatory and requires judgments about value
\nand meaning, even if they are humble. It may express thoughts and
\nemotions that the CD maker feels could be fully expressed no other
\nway.” So too can the creation of a playlist be a creative act. 
\nUsers can also add content of their own, for instance by adding
\ncommentary in a blog entry or becoming the host of their own podcasted
\nmusic show.<\/p>\n

In this way, the tools may contribute to “semiotic democracy.”<\/a> 
\nRather than just passively receiving music, consumers can actively
\nengage it, altering and adding meanings and impressions of the musical
\nworks.  When consumers stand beside (or replace) the traditional
\ntastemakers, they also may diminish the control with which those
\ntraditional tastemakers had on how we engaged music.  Consumers
\ncan shape the prism through which they view these works.<\/p>\n

Once they find others who have similar or at least interesting
\ntastes, consumers might also form niche communities on this basis. Some
\nusers may simply tell others “great playlist!”, or they may be engage
\nin more involved and complex interactions.  We’re seeing a rise
\nnot only of professional-amateur musicians, but pro-am<\/a>
\nmusic critics, pro-am tastemakers.  As they become more involved
\nin using these tools, they may develop relationships with other
\ncommitted individuals.  To the extent the tools can create bonds
\nbetween people, the creation of these communities may have beneficial
\nspill-over effects into the rest of our social life, building social capital<\/a>.   <\/p>\n

Of course, one cannot ignore the rather large consumer-to-consumer
\nsharing elephant in the corner: P2P file-sharing.  Many have
\nboasted of the community-building aspects of P2P and the independent
\nvalue of the sharing that goes on there.  But those aspects
\nshouldn’t be exaggerated – I would be surprised if most of what happens
\non P2P is more than simply dumping music into a shared folder and then
\nsearching and downloading what one seeks.  Perhaps I am wrong. In
\nany case, if I am right, part of the reason P2P never evolved into a
\nricher experience is because we sterilized it.<\/a><\/p>\n

My hope is that these burgeoning taste-sharing tools can help
\nrestart a conversation about how technology can unleash a richer
\nmusical culture. We should be celebrating what technology can do for
\nmusic.  Who could object to consumers enjoying music more,
\nenjoying a greater diversity of music, being more creative, engaging
\nmusic more deeply, and coming together with each other because of
\nmusic?  That’s the positive vision I’d like to explore in relation
\nto these tools.<\/p>\n

Of course, the potential benefits discussed above are rather
\nabstract and hypothetical.  To start at a very basic level: Who
\nknows if people are actually interested in using these tools, as
\nopposed to other types of recommendation systems?  Or whether
\nthey’re interested in interacting with each other through them? 
\nAnd many other questions.<\/p>\n

I hope to, over time, build out those hypotheses a bit more and, to
\nthe extent I can, gather some data to see what current usage of these
\ntools is like.  The data won’t be perfect, but it may be
\nsomething.  I’m intrigued to know what’s out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, the long tail is all the rage, and for good reason.  If you have not been reading Chris Anderson’s blog, I highly recommend you get caught up (about 70,000 words worth of catching up).  The implications for the content industries, including music, are profound.  No longer are people limited to what’s on the shelves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-ideas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cmusings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}