David Arditi
Biographic Data
| ID | 4194976 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Arditi |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Arditi |
| SIGNATURE | ARDITI D |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Arlington |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4993-570X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Informal Labor in the Sharing Economy: Everyone Can Be a Record Producer
Precarious Labor in Covid Times: The Case of Musicians
The coronavirus pandemic changed the way we think about work, the economy, and our everyday lives as governments shutdown all but the most essential public spaces. Workers who earn a living through precarious employment have faced unique barriers to securing wages. The impact of the pandemic shutdown was especially devastating on musicians' lives and many supporting workers in the entertainment industry. The structural insecurity of gig work beca…
Downloading is Killing Music: Napster and The Recording Industry’s Piracy Panic Narrative
Beginning in the late 1990s and the arrival of the file-sharing program Napster, the recording industry used a “piracy panic narrative” in an attempt not only to prevent file-sharing, but also, to change the basic parameters of copyright law. In this piracy panic narrative, major record labels and their representative trade associations made the argument that file-sharing is piracy, piracy is stealing, and this stealing hurts recording artists. I…
Would Adorno Download Music? Piracy, the Recording Industry and Reproduction Reconsidered
Introduction: Napster at 25
Author Biography David M. Arditi, University of Texas Arlington Associate Professor of Sociology Director - Center for Theory
Introduction: The Contradictions of Opposition to Free Trade
Author Biography David M. Arditi, University of Texas Arlington David Arditi is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Theory at the University of Texas at Arlington. He holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from George Mason University. His research addresses the impact of digital technology on society and culture with a specific focus on music. Arditi is author of iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the digital era. Ardi…
Video Game Concerts: Unending Consumption on Video Game Platforms
Over the past several decades, video games have gone from single-purpose games to multi-faceted platforms. This article is a case study that develops 'unending consumption' to understand the political economy of video game concerts. Unending consumption is the expansion of the means of consumption under a subscription model. By applying unending consumption to the political economy of video games, I show how video game concerts are embedded in th…
Precarious Labor in Covid Times: The Case of Musicians
Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms and the Unending Consumption of Culture
Encouraging us to look beyond the seemingly limitless supply of multimedia content, David Arditi calls attention to the underlying dynamics of instant viewing - in which our access to our favourite binge-worthy show, blockbuster movie or hot new album release depends on any given service’s willingness, and ability, to license it
Introduction to "This Is Not Normal"
The Voice: Non-disclosure agreements and the hidden political economy of reality TV
When aspiring recording artists audition for NBC’s The Voice, they sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for the opportunity to audition. Part of this NDA stipulates that they will pay a 500,000 USD penalty for every instance in which they disclose information about the show’s business practices. In this paper, I present NDAs as a mechanism used in reality television, and throughout society, for powerful wealthy interests to silence subordinates.…
Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter
In Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter, Christian Fuchs delivers a thorough account of fascism’s rise in the United States and the world through the prominen
Music Everywhere: Setting a Digital Music Trap
Before the digital era, music consumption was limited to purchasing LPs, tapes and CDs, or attending concerts. With digitization and mobile technologies in tow, the consumption of music exploded. Music is now literally everywhere-but none of it is actually free. Our consumption of it on television and cable, through games on our computers and our phones, through subscriptions or sites with built-in never-ending streams of advertising always has a…
Understanding copyright: Intellectual property in the digital age
Digital Subscriptions: The Unending Consumption of Music in the Digital Era
When Apple purchased Beats Music in 2014, it signified a major moment in the transformation of the recorded music commodity. This is the second time in the digital era that Apple has catalyzed a transformation of the recorded commodity after first disrupting the recording industry by creating the iTunes store. Now, the recording industry is changing from a business model dependent on the sale of commodities to a model based on subscriptions and s…
Music Video Games: Performance, Politics, and Play
Music Video Games takes a look (and listen) at the popular genre of music games – video games in which music is at the forefront of player interaction and gameplay. With chapters on a wide variety of music games, ranging from well-known console games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band to new, emerging games for smartphones and tablets, scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds discuss the history, development, and cultural impact of music …
Digital Downsizing: The Effects of Digital Music Production on Labor: Digital Downsizing
Music production and reproduction has always been effected by the implementation and adaptation of new technologies. Digital technology works to displace labor in the music industry in two parallel ways. (1) It displaces labor in the manufacture, distribution, and retail of the physical music commodity through transmediation. (2) It reduces the labor required by musicians in the production process. This paper focuses on the latter form of musicia…
ITunes: Breaking Barriers and Building Walls
With the development of online music distribution, a number of authors argued that independent musicians could compete on equal ground with major record labels. In this article, I explore the effects that online distribution has had on distributing music to consumers. This essay argues that through the development of iTunes, the major record labels have maintained the same advantages that they held through physical media distribution networks
Digital Subscriptions: The Unending Consumption of Music in the Digital Era
When Apple purchased Beats Music in 2014, it signified a major moment in the transformation of the recorded music commodity. This is the second time in the digital era that Apple has catalyzed a transformation of the recorded commodity after first disrupting the recording industry by creating the iTunes store. Now, the recording industry is changing from a business model dependent on the sale of commodities to a model based on subscriptions and s…
ITunes: Breaking Barriers and Building Walls
With the development of online music distribution, a number of authors argued that independent musicians could compete on equal ground with major record labels. In this article, I explore the effects that online distribution has had on distributing music to consumers. This essay argues that through the development of iTunes, the major record labels have maintained the same advantages that they held through physical media distribution networks
Music Everywhere: Setting a Digital Music Trap
Before the digital era, music consumption was limited to purchasing LPs, tapes and CDs, or attending concerts. With digitization and mobile technologies in tow, the consumption of music exploded. Music is now literally everywhere-but none of it is actually free. Our consumption of it on television and cable, through games on our computers and our phones, through subscriptions or sites with built-in never-ending streams of advertising always has a…
Video Game Concerts: Unending Consumption on Video Game Platforms
Over the past several decades, video games have gone from single-purpose games to multi-faceted platforms. This article is a case study that develops 'unending consumption' to understand the political economy of video game concerts. Unending consumption is the expansion of the means of consumption under a subscription model. By applying unending consumption to the political economy of video games, I show how video game concerts are embedded in th…
The Voice: Non-disclosure agreements and the hidden political economy of reality TV
When aspiring recording artists audition for NBC’s The Voice, they sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for the opportunity to audition. Part of this NDA stipulates that they will pay a 500,000 USD penalty for every instance in which they disclose information about the show’s business practices. In this paper, I present NDAs as a mechanism used in reality television, and throughout society, for powerful wealthy interests to silence subordinates.…
Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter
In Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter, Christian Fuchs delivers a thorough account of fascism’s rise in the United States and the world through the prominen
ITunes: Breaking Barriers and Building Walls
With the development of online music distribution, a number of authors argued that independent musicians could compete on equal ground with major record labels. In this article, I explore the effects that online distribution has had on distributing music to consumers. This essay argues that through the development of iTunes, the major record labels have maintained the same advantages that they held through physical media distribution networks
Digital Downsizing: The Effects of Digital Music Production on Labor: Digital Downsizing
Music production and reproduction has always been effected by the implementation and adaptation of new technologies. Digital technology works to displace labor in the music industry in two parallel ways. (1) It displaces labor in the manufacture, distribution, and retail of the physical music commodity through transmediation. (2) It reduces the labor required by musicians in the production process. This paper focuses on the latter form of musicia…
Music Video Games: Performance, Politics, and Play
Music Video Games takes a look (and listen) at the popular genre of music games – video games in which music is at the forefront of player interaction and gameplay. With chapters on a wide variety of music games, ranging from well-known console games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band to new, emerging games for smartphones and tablets, scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds discuss the history, development, and cultural impact of music …
Understanding copyright: Intellectual property in the digital age
Digital Subscriptions: The Unending Consumption of Music in the Digital Era
When Apple purchased Beats Music in 2014, it signified a major moment in the transformation of the recorded music commodity. This is the second time in the digital era that Apple has catalyzed a transformation of the recorded commodity after first disrupting the recording industry by creating the iTunes store. Now, the recording industry is changing from a business model dependent on the sale of commodities to a model based on subscriptions and s…
Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter
In Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter, Christian Fuchs delivers a thorough account of fascism’s rise in the United States and the world through the prominen
Music Everywhere: Setting a Digital Music Trap
Before the digital era, music consumption was limited to purchasing LPs, tapes and CDs, or attending concerts. With digitization and mobile technologies in tow, the consumption of music exploded. Music is now literally everywhere-but none of it is actually free. Our consumption of it on television and cable, through games on our computers and our phones, through subscriptions or sites with built-in never-ending streams of advertising always has a…
Introduction to "This Is Not Normal"
The Voice: Non-disclosure agreements and the hidden political economy of reality TV
When aspiring recording artists audition for NBC’s The Voice, they sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for the opportunity to audition. Part of this NDA stipulates that they will pay a 500,000 USD penalty for every instance in which they disclose information about the show’s business practices. In this paper, I present NDAs as a mechanism used in reality television, and throughout society, for powerful wealthy interests to silence subordinates.…
Precarious Labor in Covid Times: The Case of Musicians
Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms and the Unending Consumption of Culture
Encouraging us to look beyond the seemingly limitless supply of multimedia content, David Arditi calls attention to the underlying dynamics of instant viewing - in which our access to our favourite binge-worthy show, blockbuster movie or hot new album release depends on any given service’s willingness, and ability, to license it
Video Game Concerts: Unending Consumption on Video Game Platforms
Over the past several decades, video games have gone from single-purpose games to multi-faceted platforms. This article is a case study that develops 'unending consumption' to understand the political economy of video game concerts. Unending consumption is the expansion of the means of consumption under a subscription model. By applying unending consumption to the political economy of video games, I show how video game concerts are embedded in th…
Informal Labor in the Sharing Economy: Everyone Can Be a Record Producer
Precarious Labor in Covid Times: The Case of Musicians
The coronavirus pandemic changed the way we think about work, the economy, and our everyday lives as governments shutdown all but the most essential public spaces. Workers who earn a living through precarious employment have faced unique barriers to securing wages. The impact of the pandemic shutdown was especially devastating on musicians' lives and many supporting workers in the entertainment industry. The structural insecurity of gig work beca…
Downloading is Killing Music: Napster and The Recording Industry’s Piracy Panic Narrative
Beginning in the late 1990s and the arrival of the file-sharing program Napster, the recording industry used a “piracy panic narrative” in an attempt not only to prevent file-sharing, but also, to change the basic parameters of copyright law. In this piracy panic narrative, major record labels and their representative trade associations made the argument that file-sharing is piracy, piracy is stealing, and this stealing hurts recording artists. I…
Would Adorno Download Music? Piracy, the Recording Industry and Reproduction Reconsidered
Introduction: Napster at 25
Author Biography David M. Arditi, University of Texas Arlington Associate Professor of Sociology Director - Center for Theory
Introduction: The Contradictions of Opposition to Free Trade
Author Biography David M. Arditi, University of Texas Arlington David Arditi is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Theory at the University of Texas at Arlington. He holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from George Mason University. His research addresses the impact of digital technology on society and culture with a specific focus on music. Arditi is author of iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the digital era. Ardi…
Computer Science (9 works) · Music History and Culture (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Advertising (5 works) · Copyright and Intellectual Property (5 works) · Cultural Industries and Urban Development (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works)