It seems that no matter what we are discussing, we continuously return to the question of what music truly is, and this week's readings were no exception. Specifically, Sterne's discussion of whether music is a thing is reminiscent of previous conversations regarding music's identity as an object or an action. This week's readings position music as a commodity to be purchased and traded much more so than readings from the past. In the sense of MP3's purchasing a "song" is certainly a commodity, as you are exchanging money for something you now own. However, a consumer of this music may have no knowledge or understanding of the composer or performance style that was intended.
I thought the discussion of piracy was also quite interesting. In today's society, we hear of piracy in terms of dissemination of media so much that I had almost forgotten the original definition of piracy, as in, actual pirates who stole and smuggled goods in a manner that was illegal and often dangerous. Cyber-piracy, in comparison, seems a lot more tame, and may be somewhat accidental. Without piracy, music could not be spread to as wide an audience as it is today. Therefore, piracy may actually do some of the marketing work for artists. This is not to say that we should never go out and purchase a CD to support our favorite artists. But, how is sharing a song different from loaning a friend a favorite book or movie, or checking something out from the library? It becomes very difficult to define where piracy takes place, and at what point it is necessary/beneficial vs. detrimental to artists.