Getting Signed

Record contracts have been the goal of aspiring musicians, but are they still important in the era of SoundCloud? Musicians in the United States still seem to think so, flocking to auditions for The Voice and Idol brands or paying to perform at record label showcases in the hopes of landing a deal. The belief that signing a record contract will almost infallibly lead to some measure of success— the “ideology of getting signed,” as Arditi defines it—is alive and well.

Though streaming, social media, and viral content have turned the recording industry upside down in one sense, the record contract and its mythos still persist. Getting Signed provides a critical analysis of musicians’ contract aspirations as a cultural phenomenon that reproduces modes of power and economic exploitation, no matter how radical the route to contract. Working at the intersection of Marxist sociology, cultural sociology, critical theory, and media studies, Arditi unfolds how the ideology of getting signed penetrated an industry, created a mythos of guaranteed success, and persists in an era when power is being redefined in the light of digital technologies.  

“Getting Signed deserves to garner interest from researchers, music journalists, and artists alike. Furthermore, through its synthesis of theory and empirical evidence, Getting Signed is a useful text for scholars who are looking to tackle fundamental questions about the unequal relationships of power that lie behind cultural production.” (Jabari Evans, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Vol. 35 (2), June, 2023)

“Getting Signed is a book that builds a powerful critique of one of the biggest and most influential music industries worldwide, unveiling how the ideological motive of getting signed brings individuals to sign their own exploitation in the promise of economic success. … By providing a toolkit of concepts, theories, and empirical evidence, Getting Signed is an important contribution to tackle fundamental questions about the unequal relationships of power that lie behind many of our daily cultural consumptions.” (Luca Carbone, New media & Society, June 7, 2022)

“There is a vast gulf between making music for pleasure and making music for money. David Arditi’s Getting Signed intelligently and compellingly captures the difficulty, frustration, and hope felt by musicians as they attempt to enter the realm of the music industry and make money at music.”

—Timothy D. Taylor, Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

“Even in our digitized era of streaming media and DIY culture, the seductions of landing a record deal with a cash advance have never been stronger for musicians, singers, rockers, and rappers. But in Getting Signed, sociologist David Arditi shines his well-honed critical gaze on the venality of the pop music industry, showing how even a record contract struck in good faith can be a dream-killing Faustian bargain for most musical artists.”

—David Grazian, Associate Professor of Sociology and Communication and Faculty Director of Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania, USA

"In Getting Signed, Arditi deftly cuts through the fog of mythology, wishful thinking, and industry propaganda surrounding artist-label relations. As his exhaustive research shows, the recording industry is both fundamentally exploitative and still profoundly necessary, even as the technology, economics, and culture of the broader music industry continue to transform drastically in the wake of new, digital technologies. A must-read for aspiring musicians and scholars of the industry alike."

—Aram Sinnreich, author of The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property (2019)

“Getting Signed is a timely and trenchant reconsideration of the economics of the recording industry, and how it relies on ideology to convince musicians not only that they have to play by its rules, but also that they desperately want to. You won’t think about the music business in the same way after reading it.”

—Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert AssociateProfessor of Law, University of Kentucky, USA

David Arditi is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA, and author of iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Digital Era.