Two decades ago, widespread adoption of the Internet created a seismic shift in artistic industries. Piracy, file-sharing and other freely available content disrupted (and sometimes destroyed) dominant players in music, film and other creative trades.
Now, we’re experiencing a sort of second digital disruption. But this one might instead enhance the ability of those same creative industries to make money — and entrench the position of today’s big corporate incumbents.
That's the thesis of a forthcoming law journal article from UCLA professor Kal Raustiala and New York University professor Christopher Sprigman. They argue that the explosion of "big data" has transformed not only technical fields (manufacturing, logistics, medicine) but traditionally "artistic" ones as well, such as film, fashion, fragrances and music.