Download culture and the dilemma of postmodern technologies: (il) legal digital music sharing and itss effects on South African artistes

Abstract

Digital technologies are increasingly revolutionising music consumption patterns globally. Consequently, there is an emerging culture in which online tools have become primary platforms for music consumption. In this postmodern era, digital technologies make music easily accessed, consumed and shared, thereby providing a seemingly global recognition to artistes beyond their immediate geographical market. As a result, artistes sometimes distribute their music for free with the intention to reach potential consumers. Equally, these technologies also allow consumers to illegally access and share music freely without financial compensation to the artistes. At the same time artistes also sell their music through different online stores to generate revenue. Alongside these developments, there are challenges with access to the Internet in South Africa with older adults and those in rural areas being disadvantaged, and the cost of Internet curtailing what youths can afford to do online. This then prompts critical questions: How do older adults and youth listen to music? Where and how do they access music? How does the new digitalised music affect their music consumption? What are the implications of all these to the social capital and social lifestyles of youth and older South African adults? Also, how has the digitalisation of music impacted on the political economy of the music industry in South Africa? In what ways do the illegal and legal downloads of music benefit or disadvantage local artistes? From a critical theorisation of an emerging ‘download culture’ and a discussion of the postmodern technological turn, this study examined a case study of South African youth and older adults’ music consumption pattern. Through a survey of 202 university students in a rural South African university and 100 older adults from semi rural areas of Limpopo Province in South Africa, the study examined the ways youth and older adults access and consume music. It explored music sharing habits and opinions about piracy in a culture where music has become instantaneously shareable. Apart from findings from this study, new knowledge and a contribution to communication scholarship is presented here with a proposal of new theory of ‘download culture’. Fundamental to this study is the implications of download culture for the creative industry, predominantly, its impact on the South African music industry. The data show that this cohort of South African youth are not different from youths globally, where music is accessed through mobile cell phones. This study also reflects that many older adults do not access digitalised music due to socio economic conditions and challenges of technology access. Nevertheless, the social cultural impact of this has repercussions on the cultural well-being of this vital group in society. Although internet access challenges persist, a critical concern is the blurring distinctions about the legal and illegal download of music.