Taking on the System…

“Arctic Monkeys: … [When we went number one in England] we were on the news and radio about how MySpace has helped us. But that’s the perfect example of someone who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. We actually had no idea what [MySpace] was.

” Not only did the fans bypass the record label executives, they bypassed the band as well. Rather than depend on their favorite band to promote themselves, the fans did it for them. And while these fans didn’t run fancy music publications or have the money to advertise the band in traditional venues, they did have access to media tools – peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, social networks like MySpace, and other such online tools. The traditional gatekeepers can only watch as their iron grip on the business crumbles around them.” (pp 28 -29)

Zuniga, Markos Moulitsas. Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era. [London: Penguin, 2008]