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.
