"Instead of Serving as the Great Equalizer, the Web Has Created an Abhorrent Cultural Feudalism"

"Taylor's thesis is simply stated. The pre-Internet cultural industry, populated mainly by exploitative conglomerates, was far from perfect, but at least the ancien régime felt some need to cultivate cultural institutions, and to pay for talent at all levels. Along came the web, which swept away hierarchies—as well as paychecks, leaving behind creators of all kinds only the chance to be fleetingly 'Internet famous.' And anyhow, she says, the web never really threatened to overthrow the old media's upper echelons, whether defined as superstars, like Beyoncé, big broadcast television shows or Hollywood studios. Instead, it was the cultural industry's middle ­classes that have been wiped out and replaced by new cultural plantations ruled over by the West Coast aggregators."


Tim Wu in The New York Times reviews Astra Taylor's The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age.


And in Salon, Scott Timberg discusses problems facing classical and jazz musicians.