Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy

From Taping to Napster to TikTok

By: David Arditi

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Paperback | 3 March 2026

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Paperback
90 Pages

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22.8 x 15.2 x 0.5

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The recording industry regularly paints its consumers as pariahs waiting for new technologies to hurt the very musicians they love.

In Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy: From Taping to Napster to TikTok, Dr. David Arditi examines how the major record labels single-out new technologies as if they will bring an end to recorded music. They use what he calls the 'piracy panic narrative' a narrative in which new technologies threaten the very existence of recorded music. The piracy panic narrative is a rhetorical construct that helps to hide the material reality of the recording industry by positioning major record labels and their recording artists as the victims of widespread crime in the form of piracy. Now, divorced from piracy, the recording industry continues to use the panic narrative to dissuade fans from specific practices and to lobby the government for particular policies. Each time, they use the narrative to change public sentiment, the law, and policy to strengthen their profits. At every moment what gets ignored is labels are the primary exploiter of musicians.

Industry Reviews

"Big Music never lets a serious crisis go to waste. This compelling history of corporate storytelling guides us through four decades of recorded music's moral panics. With characteristic iconoclasm, and an analytic scalpel that cuts through industry myth, Arditi reveals how fears are weaponized to manage transformation." -Toby Bennett, Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture and Organization, School of Media and Communications, University of Westminster, UK; Author of Corporate Life in the Digital Music Industry: Remaking the Major Record Label from the Inside Out.

"In this book, David Arditi thoroughly excoriates the panic narratives emanating from the major music companies. In doing so, he reveals how these loud voices use their power to distract music fans from what is really going on, and what is really happening is that musicians continue to be grossly underpaid for their musical labour. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of music." -Dr. Sally Anne Gross, University of Westminster, Harrow Campus, UK.

"This book expertly traces the recent history of perceived threats to the recorded music industry, from home taping in the 1980s to the recent debates around AI. It challenges embedded narratives on copyright and ownership, while also encouraging discussion of the legal terminology employed in public discourse." -James Hannam, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Music Business, Southampton Solent University, UK.

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