The Business of Fragmentation

I ran into this article from the New York Times a few days ago, which seems pretty relevant to the overall discussion of the fragmentation of self expression online.

It deals with the ways in which the democratization of self-expression on the internet interact with the "professionalism" and business of artistic production. What I found most interesting was the notion that while the internet creates a sense of cultural fragmentation (ie. there is no one song that everybody is listening to, and there are a million songs that small groups are listening to), "Even if they take pride in ignoring the mass-market Top 10, users still want a little company, and perhaps they hope that the collective choices add up to some guidance." In other words, fragmentation online does not reach the level of the individual. Rather than resolutely avoiding a group cultural dynamic, users seek out a smaller niche.

In a sense, as the article argues, this allows the more traditional (ie. business) institutions that once controlled the flow of artistic content an in on the newly fragmented landscape. Google recently purchased YouTube, for example. Rather than attempting to control the endless mass of user generated content, acquiring YouTube allows them to control a site of conglomeration and dissemination. Or to put it another way, instead of attempting to gather an audience around content, they will seek to control where people gather. Given the price of over 1.5 billion that Google payed for YouTube, it would appear that fragmentation is big business indeed.