New Books in Science, Technology, and Society David Arditi, "Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy: From Taping to Napster to TikTok" (Anthem Press, 2026)
Apr 7, 2026
David Arditi, associate professor of sociology at UT Arlington and author of Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy, traces recurring industry panics from cassettes to TikTok. He maps how formats, licensing fights, and platform shifts reshape promotion, song length, and who profits. Short, clear takes on home taping, Napster, streaming economics, YouTube, and TikTok's role in music culture.
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Piracy Is A Political Label Not A Legal Category
- Piracy is an industry label rather than a precise legal term used to describe copyright violations.
- David Arditi notes U.S. law doesn't use the word piracy for copyright, yet industry rhetoric frames file sharing as stealing to moralize fans.
Record Labels Profit While Musicians Remain Contractors
- Record labels salaried staff while treating musicians as independent contractors who receive advances that must be recouped.
- Arditi explains advances fund recording but must be repaid from sales, so artists often earn little while labels keep steady wages.
Album Replacement Cycle Drives Format Booms
- New playback formats trigger an album replacement cycle that labels exploit to sell back catalogs.
- Arditi traces LP, stereo, eight-track to cassettes, showing labels relied on re-sales but feared cassettes' tape-trading that empowered independent artists.
