From P2P to the cloud: music, platformization, and infrastructural change in China

Abstract

This article provides a history of the platformization of music in China and explores what this history might tell us about platformization in the Chinese context. It goes beyond existing accounts of digital music in China, which have been dominated by the issue of intellectual property enforcement, and beyond existing accounts of the platformization of cultural production by drawing upon interpretations of platformization as a closing down of the open and “generative” potential of internet architecture. The article also considers the musical socialities afforded by different kinds of digital music applications—for example, those involving individualism or reciprocity, gift-like sharing, or consumerist exchange. Our historical analysis has three stages: a review of Chinese digital music services in the 2000s, including P2P-based and FTP-based file sharing, website-based “celestial jukebox” arrangements, and MP3 search engines; an analysis of Xiami Music, which argues that it exhibits a trajectory similar to what Andersson Schwarz characterizes as “spotification” in Western contexts; and an analysis of the contemporary cloud-based model of music streaming platforms. We argue that, while accounts centered on intellectual property might highlight Chinese exceptionalism, the examination of platformization as an intervention in infrastructure points to trajectories common to both China and the West.