Abstract

The term ‘revolution’ implicitly implies an overthrow of an existing system or in the very least a radical change. With websites like Last.fm promoting its ‘social music revolution’ one is led to believe that we are indeed facing a major shift. Some claim that the internet will revolutionise music practices and displace the mainstream music industry by democratising music production and music consumption. To the contrary, this paper argues that the claims made about the potential of the internet are somewhat idealistic. Instead I suggest that the internet, in particular the Last.fm website, promotes a false sense of self-empowerment and claims a level of democratisation that it cannot support.