Following the Musical Money

follow the music & money
awesome img grab via promo materials for a similarly titled music conf also this week

I’m honored to announce that I’ll be keynoting this Saturday’s Columbia Music Scholarship Conference. The conference theme is near and dear to my heart & work: “Music and Money: Examining Value in Music.” The relationship between money and value is a really fraught one, maybe more than ever, and all too often and easily collapsed.

Part of my current research project involves an attempt to sort out the ways that a great deal of musical practice on the web — in all its remixxy, “free culture” glory — suggests a rather strong disconnect between value and money. On the other hand, I’ve found myself increasingly occupied by the inescapability of the logic of money, especially in an age of corporate-owned social media “platforms.”

I’ve been working up a big blogpost on all of that, centered on the death of imeem, the rise of Facebook, and musicblogocide2010, among other recent developments. After I give my talk, I’ll finally find the time to get it together and share with y’all, as I’m really eager to gather some feedback from my dear (patient) readers.

Speaking of valued interlocutors, there will be several there on Saturday, including Gavin “Unfashionablylate” Mueller, who’ll be speaking on streaming services (abstract). The conference is free and open to the public, so any other NYC/Tri-staters who’d like to check it out should feel welcome.