A K-pop-based Explanation of Music Copyright Part 1.

Posted by Joseph Hwang Joseph Hwang 8/12/2024

A K-pop-based Explanation of Music Copyright Part 1.

Joseph Hwang

The music industry is a rights-based business. The profit motive of the enterprise comes from exclusivity. In the sale of physical goods, the ownership of the commodity changes hands with the “movement of occupancy.” Thus, physical exclusivity, which does not allow for simultaneous existence, ensures that the added value is attributed to the business, allowing for continuous commercial activity. However, intangible goods, such as music, are physically volatile and, therefore, permit a different form of exclusivity than goods that can be physically possessed, ensuring that the value added to consumers through distribution is returned to the producer.

The rights and obligations established by law are conceptual, not material. However, as the conceptual ingredients are institutionalized in law, they maintain social consensus and punish traders who deviate from it. Thus, even if rights are intangible, they can be traded within the legal system and have the effect of transferring and preserving value. A typical example is patent rights, one of the industrial property rights.

In the realm of culture and art, intangible rights can also be traded, such as copyright, which is granted to the creator. Music is a volatile commodity, except for those that can be recorded. The properties of sound as the material of music induce this phenomenon. Hence, mankind’s musical commodity was originally only performance. Then a revolution occurred when musical scores were created to graphically record sounds instead of relying on memory. Only after acoustical records were invented was the possession of sounds made available. It was when we were introduced to a different kind of musical product for the first time.

The concept of copyright as an exclusive right predates the acoustic recording of music. Mankind’s recording materials were originally graphic, not acoustic; the means were visual, not auditory, such as drawings and letters. Physical and conceptual exclusivity are essential to the distribution of the added value of music, which is an aural art. Distributing music replicates the listening experience. This replication is technical, and all exclusivity in the music industry derives from this technical act. As it happens, music is an auditory art, but auditory replication comes after the replication of musical symbols.

Replicating auditory art through visual means is a significant discovery and approach. Sheet music is the result. The idea of making the sounds we hear with our ears visible to our eyes, and then recording and duplicating them, allows music to be replicated, providing listeners in different places and times with almost the same sonic experience. Before the technology to record and duplicate sound material emerged, the concept of turning volatile sounds into graphics and replicating them to recreate a near-original auditory experience was revolutionary. Moreover, this graphical replication was able to transfer the added value of music—a volatile commodity before the advent of acoustic replication—to the listener and attribute that added value to the music producer.

The creation of wealth from music was a phenomenon made possible only through performances, a volatile musical commodity. The advent of sheet music, for the first time in human history, created a market that was not simultaneous but asynchronous. The technology of recording and replication takes human markets to a whole new level and generates unimaginable economic effects. This is why there was a market for sheet music before there was a market for records, and an earlier market for performances before the market for sheet music.

To be continued in Part 2.

Series Articles

Part 1.

https://www.musicbusiness.co.kr/2024/08/a-k-pop-based-explanation-of-music.html

Part 2.

https://www.musicbusiness.co.kr/2024/08/a-k-pop-based-explanation-of-music_01103635833.html

Part 3.

https://www.musicbusiness.co.kr/2024/08/a-k-pop-based-explanation-of-music_01024960771.html

Part 4.

https://www.musicbusiness.co.kr/2024/08/a-k-pop-based-explanation-of-music_01817572733.html

Part 5.

https://www.musicbusiness.co.kr/2024/08/a-k-pop-based-explanation-of-music_0516893882.html