Don't be chicken to change

“During long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity's entire mode of existence. The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which it is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well.” (Benjamin 222)

My academic interests being focused on internet culture and the viral spread of information through online methods of communication, I can't help but think about how that quote applies to the modern internet age. Historically, we're in an interesting place. Just about the whole world is networked together, and instantaneous global communication has never been so accessible. This means that something popular from Africa (say, South Africa) can suddenly become a pop video hit all over the world even without the marketing machine that powered such global pop stars like Michael Jackson or some other one (there's more than one global pop star, right?).

This creates an interesting set of circumstances to consider when it comes to shared internet content. First, the original version of something (meaning the original upload) can be shared with anyone who wants to view it. Second, if the original cannot be shared, a perfect reproduction may be produced and shared in its place.

The increase in saturation for internet technology means more and more people are going to be sharing original content all over the globe.  “Just as lithography virtually implied the illustrated newspaper,” Horkheimer and Adorno write, “so did photography foreshadow the sound film” (219). If we are to apply this to modern communication, the advent of the internet implied the mass reproduction of video and audio even in its early infant stages when it was simply a cluster of networked computers sharing text based information.

However, there are some circumstances where viewing the original has been limited by the superstructure. One of the reasons I’m hesitant to follow any sort of inclination to move abroad is that the technological services I’ve become accustomed to using (see: Netflix and Hulu) are restricted by region due to licensing rights. Even if a service is a great idea and sure to be a hit, navigating the laws and procedures of the superstructure means companies will spend months or years negotiating deals with record companies and movie labels before they can expand into a new national market.

The recently-released-in-the-US Spotify is a great example of this. Available in the UK for more than two years, Spotify was only released in the US this last summer. It’s basically the Netflix for music: almost any song you’d want to listen to can be found on the service, and you can stream them over the internet to your computer or mobile device. On my recent drive to and from LA, I used the Spotify app on my phone to listen to all sorts of music I hadn’t been willing to pay for individually but was willing to enjoy as part of a package deal. (Who knew Tom Petty had so many hits?)