My response to the idea in that little piece: It’s more profitable for EMI to own/license songs than it is to make new ones. It makes my stomach turn. It’s not that any of this is a new thing (‘this’ roughly meaning re-use, appropriation, remix, reference, allusion, tradition, history); and it’s not that the centralization of creation is necessarily at an all-time high. It’s not.

I’m just a little repulsed by what I take to be a spreading dichotomy: There’s an elite class of creators, and then the fan class of remixers, and the remixers are getting more and more rewarded—not in monetary terms but with cultural capital, Internet fame, pageviews, likes. It’s the same and ongoing problem with Web culture—achievement is rewarded with gift cards good for nothing, airlines miles for your personal brand. The looking glass held up to society is no longer cracked, but what it’s also no longer of the servant. Servants get paid.