Creative Commons Licensing and Relations of Production in the Sound Industry

This article describes current production practices taking place in the sound industry, concentrating on the process of implementation and popularization of Creative Commons. Existing studies have considered the role of classical copyright in the creative industries, pointing at its functions in regulating the creative process, but so far have not extensively examined its relationship to alternative intellectual property frameworks. This paper uses the empirical example of the largest sound repository to describe the change occurring in cultural production. The article posits that mass popularization of Creative Commons provokes transformation within three key and intersecting areas of production, including the subjects of property (creators), objects of property (creations) and articulation of usage (source information). The paper theoretically frames and expands our understanding of change provoked by open licensing and its relationship to the creative production process.