Essay - Studygroup/Blog?

The post of aye002 made me wonder why none of us thought of having an online discussion of our essay questions? As most of us (so I hope) do read this blog regularily, it would be, if not a little late, a good platform for some of us to discuss points and research with regard to our essay question.

I start the ball rolling and say that I will write on No. 3 (the music question).
Many music industry reports treat music consumption primarily as an economic activity rather than a social or cultural activity. How do you think a discussion of music consumption as primarily social and cultural can inform current debates on the economy of digital music?

Well as far as I understand the question is for us to look at how digital music is consumed. The main concern must be that peer-to-peer filesharing networks do provide an avenue for pirated music to be made available online and as newer platforms are not centralised (no big server in one stationary place but individual PC's become networked) they are hard to shut down. Also downloading music is not seen as theft. Consolidation in the music industry means that the "Big 5" own most music which is available in shops. Hence it is possible that downloaders see it as stealing from the rich and subsequently alright to do so. Also how about consumers liking to listen to "playlists" instead of whole albums?

Well I have of course more points but if some people want to share ideas of those who are doing essay question 3 are afraid to use this public forum then feel free to e-mail me at s i l u_n z@yahoo.co.nz (just make it one word, I have those spaces as not to receive spam from webcrawlers etc)