Criminalizing Independent Music- The Recording Industry Association of America's Advancement of Dominant Ideology

Music industry executives have been the main gatekeepers in determiningwhat music is available to consumers since the advent of the gramophone. Asmajor record labels have become more highly consolidated there has beenan increasing concentration of those who determine what music is availablefor consumption. With the development of online music distribution a gaphas formed where independent artists can distribute their music by bypassingthe costly hard media distribution system. This book explores how the RecordingIndustry Association of America (RIAA) is used by the major record labelsto limit the access that independent artists/labels have to consumersthrough the internet. It argues that in the process through which the musicindustry works to co-opt and commodify genres of music the music is (de)politicized to appeal to a larger audience. This study is geared towards thoseinterested in the music industry commodification and intellectual propertypolicies.