Three labels and four tech companies form a cultural cartel

Evidence

The directive that ends this eloquent summary of music business practices is a reference to the classic mafia film Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990). Henry Hill, the protagonist, is describing how the mafia extorts small businesses in exchange for protection, extracting profit without regard for the health of the business: “But now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week, no matter what. Business is bad? ‘Fuck you, pay me.’ Oh, you had a fire? ‘Fuck you, pay me.’ The place got hit by lightning? ‘Fuck you, pay me.’” The comparison is apt; with only three labels and four tech companies, the extortion of rent on extensive catalogs of music, particularly from streaming platforms, is akin to a cultural cartel enacting mass theft of creativity. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 231

Categorization

• XREF: The Goodfellas comparison — mafioso rent extraction mapped onto the music industry — is a vivid instance of the ownership-structure-leaves-aesthetic-fingerprint thesis through pop-culture citation.