Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy

David Arditi's book traces recurring panic narratives in the recorded-music industry, from home taping through Napster to TikTok, arguing that these moral panics mask how labels protect profits while many artists struggle economically.

Drawing on historical examples and contemporary cases, Arditi shows how industry rhetoric often blames listeners and technologies rather than the industry's business practices.

The book examines format shifts, the album-replacement cycle, tape trading, file sharing, and streaming, and how each moment produced claims that music was being 'killed.

' Arditi situates these episodes within broader industry structures—contracts, advances, and recoupment—that leave creators precarious.

Accessible and critical, the work offers a roadmap for understanding cultural-industry responses to technological change.