tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/pandora-2736/articlesPandora – The Conversation2022-07-11T14:32:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1864782022-07-11T14:32:27Z2022-07-11T14:32:27ZA referendum on electoral reform in South Africa might stir up trouble<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472956/original/file-20220707-16-psr2t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Voters in Johannesburg queue to vote in South Africa's May 2019 national elections. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After 28 years of democracy, South Africa is having to reform its political party-based electoral system to make it fairer and in line with the constitution, by allowing independent candidates to <a href="https://perjournal.co.za/article/view/12746">contest national and provincial parliaments</a>. A <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/bill/2300397">bill</a> to amend the country’s electoral law accordingly is before parliament.</p>
<p>The present electoral system has underpinned the governing African National Congresses’ (<a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/">ANC</a>’s) <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-voters-are-disillusioned-but-they-havent-found-an-alternative-to-the-anc-171239">dominance of the political system since 1994</a>, not least by making individual MPs accountable to party bosses rather than the voters. This lack of accountability has facilitated the <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/speeches/statement-president-cyril-ramaphosa-handover-final-part-state-capture-commission-report%2C-union-buildings%2C-pretoria">stunning level of corruption</a> in the country.</p>
<p>Now there are calls for a <a href="https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/standing-up-to-defend-our-democracy-is-the-only-option-20220702">national referendum</a> on the electoral system to define the way forward, and liberate it from the clutches of party barons. The intention seems to be to give the decision to “the people” rather than to parliament, which is the ordinary way for legislative change to be enacted.</p>
<p>But, this proposal would need to be handled carefully. </p>
<p>Referendums can be easily abused. Politicians often resort to them to avoid responsibility for making a difficult political decision, or to secure backing for a controversial policy and thus beat an opponent.</p>
<p>Examples abound.</p>
<p>British Labour prime minister Harold Wilson’s <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/britain-decides-the-first-european-referendum/">1975
referendum</a> on whether Britain should stay in the European common market was an example of the first. South African president FW de Klerk’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1992-whites-only-referendum-or-against-negotiated-constitution">1992 referendum</a> among whites to secure backing for entering negotiations with the ANC to end apartheid – thereby scuppering the opposition <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Conservative-Party-political-party-South-Africa">Conservative Party</a> – was an example of the second.</p>
<p>Both Wilson and De Klerk received the answer they wanted and
expected. But politicians can also miscalculate badly. The most obvious example is British Conservative <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Cameron">prime minister David Cameron</a>’s decision to call a referendum <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-five-years-after-the-referendum-here-are-five-things-weve-learned-162974">in 2016</a> on whether the UK should stay in the European Union.</p>
<p>He fully expected to win, but in the face of a scurrilous campaign by populist politicians like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/boris-johnson-exit-is-beginning-end-brexit-2022-07-07/">Boris Johnson</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/13/nigel-farage-hard-right-faction-brexit-net-zero-tory">Nigel Farage</a>, he lost. Today Britain is having to live with the consequences of Brexit: increased costs of imports from Europe, lower exports to Europe, constant supply chain problems, labour shortages and huge difficulties around Northern Ireland.</p>
<h2>Lessons to be drawn</h2>
<p>Britain’s history with referendums is worth noting. South Africa does not want to go the same way. Lessons need to be drawn from these and other examples around the world. </p>
<p>Care and rules are needed for how any referendum, on any question,
would be conducted. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Who would devise the question put to the electorate? Are they independent, or are they subordinated to the interests of particular politicians?</p></li>
<li><p>Are the questions posed neutrally phrased, or do they deliberately or otherwise point their respondents in a particular direction?</p></li>
<li><p>Would the government of the day be bound by the result of a referendum, or would it be advisory?</p></li>
<li><p>Would a government accept a result endorsed by a 50.1% majority,
or would it require a “special majority”, of say 55%, to pass?</p></li>
<li><p>What rules would have to be followed during a campaign, and how would the media be required to conduct themselves? </p></li>
<li><p>What sanctions would be imposed to limit the subversion of the campaign by lies by both sides of the electoral debate? </p></li>
<li><p>Would there be any rule outlawing a repeat of the referendum within any given period of time?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Without careful regulation, a referendum can be predisposed to securing a particular answer. Yet it is ostensibly designed to deepen democracy, not to subvert it.</p>
<h2>Proportionality</h2>
<p>Electoral systems can be highly complex. The great virtue of South Africa’s proportional representation <a href="https://hsf.org.za/publications/hsf-briefs/the-south-african-electoral-system">electoral system</a> is that it is simple. The voter has two votes, one for national level, one for provincial level. These votes contribute to the proportionate vote of the chosen party.</p>
<p>It is rather more difficult to explain to voters how <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272466990_The_Case_of_Lesotho's_Mixed_Member_Proportional_System">mixed member systems</a> ensure proportionality of party representation. These systems combine <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/first-past-the-post-voting-explained/">first-past-the-post</a> constituency elections with proportional representation. </p>
<p>This poses the issue of how members of parliament who are elected by constituencies would be balanced by those elected by <a href="https://www.eisa.org/wep/sou3.htm">proportional representation</a> to ensure an election result which, as the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/saconstitution-web-eng.pdf">constitution</a> requires, is overall, proportional. In other words, what proportion of MPs would be elected by constituencies as against those elected by proportional representation?</p>
<p>These complexities and other considerations suggest a way forward if much-needed electoral reform, beyond that presently ordered by the Constitutional Court, is to be achieved in South Africa.</p>
<p>The first step must be for the ANC to be pushed well below 50% in the <a href="https://www.eisa.org/wep/southafrica.htm">2024 election</a>. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas. The ANC is unlikely to hold a referendum which might lead to far-reaching electoral reform.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that the ANC will vote for radical electoral reform unless it is hard pushed to do so. It is at present working hard to <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-is-in-search-of-a-fairer-electoral-system-but-whats-been-tabled-is-flawed-184277">minimise the impact</a> of allowing independent candidates to stand in elections, as required by a ruling of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/constitutional-court-ruling-heralds-changes-to-south-africas-electoral-system-140668">Constitutional Court</a>.</p>
<p>Second, there needs to be a binding commitment by opposition parties to electoral reform and how to bring it about. Presuming that the ANC receives <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/05/20/jeff-radebe-warns-anc-could-get-below-50-of-votes-at-2024-national-elections">well below 50%</a> in the 2024 election, this commitment must be a condition of any coalition agreement formed between political parties forming a government.</p>
<p>Third, there should be a repeat of the 2003 <a href="https://static.pmg.org.za/docs/Van-Zyl-Slabbert-Commission-on-Electoral-Reform-Report-2003.pdf">Van Zyl Slabbert Commission</a> to consider electoral alternatives. Such a commission should be composed in such a way to earn the trust of both politicians and voters.</p>
<p>Its deliberations need not take much time, as the commission has already discussed the fundamental principles involved. It also ran a survey which – rather than asking respondents directly what electoral system they favoured – asked them what values they wanted an electoral system to express, values like fairness, equality and accountability.</p>
<p>Fourth, the recommendations of such a commission would need to be
accepted and implemented by parliament. This is where any coalition
agreement should kick in. Perhaps such a coalition agreement might
require that, in the event of a serious disagreement about electoral reform, the matter should be referred to the Constitutional Court.</p>
<h2>What issues should the people decide?</h2>
<p>This leaves open the issue of whether, following the approval or
defeat of a bill to implement electoral reform, the outcome should be
referred to the electorate in a referendum.</p>
<p>It needs to be clear as to why, if parliament has made a decision, the
matter should be referred to a referendum. Perhaps it should. Perhaps this would be a way of making South Africa’s democracy more direct, and its politicians more accountable.</p>
<p>But if the form of an electoral system can be referred to the electorate in a referendum, why not capital punishment? And why not abortion? Or LGBTIQ rights? </p>
<p>Care is needed. A referendum may well have a place in the country’s
democracy, but beware – it may release a host of problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Referenda may well have a place in the country’s democracy, but if the form of an electoral system can be referred to a referendum, why not capital punishment, abortion or LGBT rights?Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1670252021-09-02T12:24:25Z2021-09-02T12:24:25Z‘Work with hope’ – a poet and classics scholar on facing the flood of bad news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418667/original/file-20210831-13-nuut28.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3828%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What, more depressing news?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-african-woman-reacting-to-loss-on-laptop-in-royalty-free-image/1223385393?adppopup=true">Rolling Camera/ iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Patience is wearing thin. Not only are we all bone-weary of the pandemic; rising hopes have made the current precarious state of confusion and fear, vigorous variants and stubborn vaccine rejection all the more frustrating. </p>
<p>We thought we were almost out of the woods, but there’s no clear end in sight to this forest. And there’s no shortage of other bad and worsening news too, notably the dramatic daily evidence of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-climate-report-profound-changes-are-underway-in-earths-oceans-and-ice-a-lead-author-explains-what-the-warnings-mean-165588">catastrophic results of climate change</a>.</p>
<p>How do we weather this welter of bad news? How do we adapt?</p>
<p>The same ways human beings always have adapted – grudgingly or stoically, fearfully or fatalistically or frantically. We’re in a prolonged period of maddeningly, scarily bad news – and if we follow the 24-hour news cycle, we’re in it up to our chins.</p>
<p>But how good has the news ever been? Precisely when or what was the Golden Age? <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46110.Randall_Jarrell">Poet Randall Jarrell wrote,</a> with tongue in cheek, that it’s when people went around complaining how yellow everything looked. </p>
<h2>Keep on keeping on</h2>
<p>Even under dire conditions, most people go on doing what they do for as long as they can. </p>
<p>The Homeric epics, which date from the eighth century B.C., are preoccupied with both grief and survival. Late in the Iliad, speaking of Achilles’ inconsolable grief after the loss of his beloved Patroklos, who was not a blood relative, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-iliad-homercaroline-alexander?variant=32199389052962">the god Apollo reminds the other Olympians</a> that things could always be worse: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A man surely is likely to lose someone even dearer- <br>
A brother born of the same womb, or his own son; <br>
but having wept and mourned, he lets it go; <br>
for the Fates placed an enduring heart within mankind.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pile of newspaper headlines with bad news." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418668/original/file-20210831-25-b19zay.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The news is bad now – but hasn’t it always been?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/coronavirus-newspaper-headline-montage-royalty-free-image/1214266712?adppopup=true">belterz/E+/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human beings are more enduring, more adaptable, than we give ourselves credit for. <a href="https://english.columbia.edu/content/andrew-delbanco">Scholar and author Andrew Delbanco</a> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/27e3fc2a-1542-4a3c-964b-506dbe9c8ee2">observed in July 2020</a>: “Four months ago, I thought ‘zoom’ meant the sound of a motorcycle. Then coronavirus struck, the students were sent home, and we faculty were given a few days to learn how to teach by Zoom for the rest of the semester.”</p>
<p>Zoom videoconferencing lasted a lot longer than the rest of the spring semester of 2020, and the need for it has not gone away. But as Delbanco also notes, “Having scattered around the world, my students were grateful to reconnect, even if they felt that ‘virtual’ classes were weak simulation of the real thing.”</p>
<p>Many of us adapted to virtual, only to be told this past spring and summer that we could begin to ease out of the remote mode – a change which brought its own anxieties. I’m reminded of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190119174211/https://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/plato/the-cave/">Plato’s allegory of the cave</a>. Socrates suggests that any prisoner dragged forcibly out of the cave would feel pain and rage until he became acclimatized to the shadows, reflections, the stars and moon, and finally the light of the sun.</p>
<p>In the same way, perhaps the nonvirtual world, the world of in-person classes, will feel strange to some people. But they will adapt. And perhaps, as the delta variant and other variants in the making continue to spread, it won’t be necessary to adapt so soon. More useful concepts for the period we’re in now than the provocative and recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/us/politics/covid-pandemic-guidelines.html">omnipresent trope of whiplash</a> are patience and hope.</p>
<h2>‘The thing with feathers’</h2>
<p>Hesiod, Homer’s contemporary, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/541694/works-and-days-by-hesiod-translated-with-an-introduction-and-notes-by-a-e-stallings/">tells us in his poem “Works and Days”</a> that when Pandora, a seductive figure who is the gods’ deceitful gift to mankind, opens her jar and releases all the evils that plague the world, including pestilence, Hope alone stays behind. Thank goodness for hope – what would we do without “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314">the thing with feathers/that perches on the soul</a>,” as Emily Dickinson famously describes it. </p>
<p>In the absence of hope, it’s hard to summon the energy to endure. It helps to remember <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/12/magazine/jane-goodall-interview.html">Jane Goodall’s words, spoken in the context of climate change</a> and extinction but equally applicable, surely, to any dire situation: “We absolutely need to know all the doom and gloom because we are approaching a crossroads. But traveling the world I’d see animal and plant species being rescued from the brink of extinction, people tackling what seemed impossible.” These positive stories need more attention, says Goodall, because “they’re what give people hope.” </p>
<p>Yes, hope can be mocking, frustrated and frustrating, when it’s disappointed, when it turns out to have been premature, as happened this summer. But a year ago, who would have dared to hope that the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03626-1">vaccines would be developed so swiftly</a>? What was our hope then? We forget so quickly.</p>
<p>We must try to find a balance between hope, which looks ahead, and the tasks of the present. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the 19th-century English poet who knew a good deal about dejection, captures such a balance perfectly at the close of his sonnet “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43999/work-without-hope">Work without Hope</a>”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, <br>
And Hope without an object cannot live.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>At sea with ‘broken oars’</h2>
<p>We can take the long view and look and hope beyond what can feel like an endless glum horizon. </p>
<p>But we can also focus on the small things, the countless occasions for gratitude we might not even have dared to envision at this time last year. The seasons keep turning, and now it’s early autumn, with its large and small changes. Henry David Thoreau <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Year_in_Thoreau_s_Journal/aPgr7k_MYPkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%E2%80%9CThe+days+for+some+time+have+been+sensibly+shorter%3B+there+is+time+for+music+in+the+evening.%E2%80%9D&pg=PA156&printsec=frontcover">wrote in his journal on Aug. 12, 1851</a>: “The days for some time have been sensibly shorter; there is time for music in the evening.” Thoreau was well aware of the Mexican War, slavery, the pervasive sense of approaching crisis. But he also paid attention to each day as it passed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rough waters, with foamy, breaking waves" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418683/original/file-20210831-17-olimgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can broken oars still power us through rough seas?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/wandering-albatross-in-flight-over-rough-sea-royalty-free-image/96324823?adppopup=true">Mike Hill/Stone/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Greek poet and Nobel laureate <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51457/mythistorema">George Seferis wrote a long poetic sequence, Mythistorema</a>, which recounts a timeless version of the Odyssey. The line that sticks with me now is “We put to sea again with our broken oars.” </p>
<p>That phrase meant one thing to Seferis, writing in 1935, and to his generations of readers; it means something else now, in 2021, to me and to my students. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/348265/walking-a-sacred-path-by-lauren-artress/">As the Reverend Lauren Artress wrote</a> in her 1995 study of “the labyrinth as spiritual practice” – a different context, but with widely applicable truth – “The experience is different for everyone because each of us brings different raw material to the labyrinth.”</p>
<p>The Age of Iron. The cave dwellers resisting the scary sunlight. The enduring human heart. The challenges that lie in wait even after, like Odysseus, you’ve landed on your Ithaca. The broken oars. And the vitality of hope. </p>
<p>I’m grateful that – in person, remotely or some confusing combination of the two – I have a chance to keep on teaching literature. To revise Coleridge’s bleak formulation: Work with hope. Hope with an object.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167025/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rachel Hadas says that despite the cascade of scary news, humans will adapt, as they always have – and provides evidence of that resilience in the literature she loves and teaches.Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816212017-08-13T21:13:35Z2017-08-13T21:13:35ZSpotify may soon dominate music the way Google does search — this is why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181106/original/file-20170806-2414-1vymiy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From European beginnings, Spotify looks set to take the crown of the #1 music streaming service in the US later this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougliz/32727525400/">dougliz/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While competition online starts the same way as that in offline markets, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-theres-no-pepsi-in-cyberspace-19902">my research</a> shows it often settles very differently online.</p>
<p>Both have seen lots of competitors emerge in a new area underpinned by new technologies. But online, consolidation ends in a high-stakes winner-takes-most “title fight” between the two strongest players.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-theres-no-pepsi-in-cyberspace-19902">Why there's no Pepsi® in cyberspace</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In search this was AltaVista vs Google, in social media it was MySpace vs Facebook and in business networking Spoke vs LinkedIn. The result is that the victor at this critical juncture goes on to dominate their corner of the market and becomes almost unassailable in that space.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181002/original/file-20170804-27426-23n3ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facebook vanquished early industry leader MySpace in Social Media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: Online Gravity</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The evidence is mounting that Swedish music streaming company Spotify is on the verge of seizing the crown in music.</p>
<p>Pandora has been for some time the dominant real-time streaming service in the United States. Three years ago it had a clear lead but competition from Spotify appears to be stronger than ever. Pandora was a mass market pioneer in the online “radio” style streaming format where users pick stations and the music is compiled for them, whereas Spotify adopted an on-demand model which has prevailed. </p>
<p>Spotify has created many features that has made it popular with users like the ability to create and swap playlists. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-data-is-transforming-the-music-industry-70940">How data is transforming the music industry</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the United States, Pandora has more monthly active users than Spotify, Shazam, Soundcloud and Amazon Music, according to App Annie. While Pandora has dominated in the United States its success in other markets has not been so strong. In Australia and New Zealand, for example, it recently closed its service and Jane Huxley, former managing director of Pandora Australia and New Zealand who resigned in March was <a href="http://www.theindustryobserver.com.au/spotify-aunz-taps-ex-pandora-exec-jane-huxley-lead-role/">just announced</a> in the same role at Spotify.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181107/original/file-20170806-7490-1om1cdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Over a decade in the making, could 2017 be time for Spotify’s time in the Sun?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">giuseppemilo/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Spotify also has a massive global subscriber base - many of whom are paying higher per user fees than Pandora. It now looks likely to take the global lead for three reasons:
</p><ol>
<li> Explosive new user growth
</li><li> Growing investor valuations
</li><li> Attraction of technology talent
</li></ol><p></p>
<p><strong>Explosive new user growth</strong></p>
<p>While the category of streaming music still is in its infancy, new users are critical to success. And this is where Spotify is killing it. In the context of Apps, new users are all about downloads and for the best part of 2017, Spotify has taken the crown of #1 most downloaded music app in the United States on iOS. So while Pandora is still currently ahead in monthly active users, at this rate it won’t be long before Spotify takes the lead overall.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181081/original/file-20170805-4092-19f9unt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spotify now #1 in the United States in Music App Downloads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Online Gravity with data from App Annie, 2017.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Growing investor valuations</strong></p>
<p>Investors always have a forward looking view. Companies are valued not on what they are doing today but what investors expect from them in terms of future growth and performance. While still private, and with rumours of a stock market listing later this year, Spotify is now valued by investors at more than US$13 billion - over five times the current value of publicly listed Pandora which is currently US$2.3 billion. </p>
<p><strong>Attraction of technology talent</strong></p>
<p>The success of all online ventures is fuelled by technology talent. And many of the people in the tech sector have their antennae tuned to who is hot and who is not.</p>
<p>You can now use data to examine which companies are the most desirable destinations for software developers and tech talent by looking not at what people say, but where they go. When people leave one company to go work for another that creates a data point, and when you have lots of these that’s a trend. </p>
<p>Using the technology talent movement metrics we can see also Spotify took the lead from Pandora in the United States in September last year. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181100/original/file-20170806-7490-1t78z19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spotify overtakes Pandora as a Tech Talent Destination of Choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paysa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How competition evolves</h2>
<p>Initially new segments of the digital economy emerge in the same way as new segments of the traditional economy — with a vibrant explosion of new life and competition. Consider the car industry where there have been more than 3,000 car companies formed in the US alone over the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-06/business/fi-7131_1_computer-industry">last century</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180598/original/file-20170801-9618-iyrqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Birth of the car spawned intense competition and hundreds of new startups.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the influence of competition, these thousands of companies have now winnowed down to <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/232958/revenue-of-the-leading-car-manufacturers-worldwide/">ten major global companies,</a> each with sales of more than US$100 billion.</p>
<p>The way competition evolves online is akin to how the force of gravity has formed our solar system from lots of smaller rocks over time into clear planets with moons or satellites but, notably with no dual or triple planets. I refer to this phenomena as <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Online-Gravity/Paul-X-McCarthy/9781476795546">“Online Gravity”.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180570/original/file-20170801-21966-18wiy07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Online Gravity and three phases of industry evolution: Offline vs Online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>*Except China, Russia and South Korea.</em></p>
<p>Consider web search where the now-dominant Google launched in 1998. It was about the 16th search engine launched — after <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Online-Gravity/Paul-X-McCarthy/9781925030747">Infoseek, Alta Vista, WebCrawler and at least a dozen others. </a></p>
<h2>Where are today’s title fights?</h2>
<p>We can see competition impacts clearly with the benefit of hindsight, but what about “title fights” that are currently underway? </p>
<p>Has Uber gone to point of market dominance beyond competition, or is it a MySpace awaiting Facebook, perhaps Lyft or another yet to enter entrant to steal its crown? Who will win the title belt for outsourced online labour? Will it be Freelancer.com or UpWork? </p>
<p>The prize for understanding who is going to win is large, and explains the premiums venture capitalists and public market investors alike put on companies that are favoured title fight winners. </p>
<p>Could Tesla become the Google of electric vehicles? Many people think so or that its battery technology advances could lead it to dominate in broader distributed energy industries of the future. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://theconversation.com/itll-take-more-than-tech-for-elon-musk-to-pull-off-audacious-new-tesla-master-plan-62884">It’ll take more than tech for Elon Musk to pull off audacious new Tesla master plan</a></em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Much has been made in the media of the market value of Tesla now overtaking both GM and Ford, making it the most valuable US car maker. This is despite the fact Tesla sold less than 100,000 cars vs 10 million at GM and that its revenue is less that 5% of GM and Ford’s. And it’s still losing money. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181098/original/file-20170806-10088-7tfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Telsa’s market value overtook that of Ford in March and GM in May.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Y Charts and Online Gravity</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Could Tesla’s rise in market valuation have been predicted? One interesting new data source that may shed light on this is technology talent. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181099/original/file-20170806-23934-12l1gkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Long before Tesla overtook GM in market value it won the hearts and minds of US software developers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paysa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Salary monitoring service Paysa also charts the movement of technology talent. It ranks the desirability of companies as employers, using data on technology talent migration it gets from LinkedIn and other sources.</p>
<p>Here we can see that Tesla overtook GM in terms of desirability as a destination for tech talent some four years ago and has remained ahead ever since. This coincides with Tesla’s subsequent rapid rise in enterprise value as reflected by the stockmarket.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul X. McCarthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While Pandora continues to lead in the US in streaming music all the signs from investors, user momentum and tech talent indicate Spotify is on the verge of seizing the crown.Paul X. McCarthy, Adjunct Professor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/377892015-02-25T01:23:30Z2015-02-25T01:23:30ZA feminist nightmare: how fear of women haunts our earliest myths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72736/original/image-20150223-21899-pwko75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A disturbing pattern emerges of women being gorgeous on the outside, and evil on the inside.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Raynal</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1930, Enid Blyton edited <a href="http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=508">Tales of Ancient Greece</a>. The endeavour was jolly brave when we consider some of the hair-raising myths of the ancient Greeks. But it was, of course, a darling collection with lashings of light-hearted adventure. </p>
<p>The collection kicks off with Pandora and the Whispering Box:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Long, long ago, when the world was new, and no pain or sorrow was known, Epimetheus lived with his beautiful young wife Pandora. They dwelt in a house made of branches and leaves, for the sun shone always, and the wind was never cold. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pandora spent most of her time being lovely, surrounded by a doting hubby and the laughter of her friends. But this ended abruptly when a god wandered by and asked Pandora and Epimetheus to mind a box for him. The caveat: “do not open.”</p>
<p>Enid’s version strays from the original myth right from the beginning: Epimetheus was around a long time before Pandora, they didn’t live in a cubby-house, no one was happy and there was never a box – let alone one that whispered.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1272&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72738/original/image-20150223-20555-1f34bw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1272&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jules Joseph Lefebvre: Pandora, 1882.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The original <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Pandora.html">myth of Pandora</a> was the tale of the fall from innocence, the hardships of mortal existence and the fear of women. It belonged to an oral tradition and was eventually recorded in the 7th century BC by a gloomy poet called <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/264059/Hesiod">Hesiod</a>. Like many Greek myths, the story was an integral component of belief and ritual, a sacred narrative predicated on divine power. </p>
<p>Pandora, the first woman, was created as a punishment. Before she was made, the earth was a paradise, populated by men who lived free from hardship and enjoyed the company of the gods. But after <a href="http://www.prometheas.org/mythology.html">Prometheus</a> disobeyed <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Zeus.html">Zeus</a> once too often, giving the gift of fire to mankind, the supreme god punished both him and the mortals complicit in his act of defiance. </p>
<p>Prometheus was chained to a rock while a giant eagle nibbled his liver. Men were given women. </p>
<p>The first of the “race of women”, Pandora, was a trap – gorgeous on the outside, and evil on the inside – and she marked the end of paradise. Unwavering in her curiosity, Pandora could not resist opening the lid of a jar entrusted to her, releasing all the sorrows of the human condition. Intriguingly, only hope remained trapped inside. </p>
<p>The details of the original myth, sidestepped for the kiddies in Enid’s version, may be a feminist’s nightmare, but in antiquity such sacred narratives were not uncommon. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11646c.htm">Genesis</a>, Eve was the first woman. Like Hesiod, who told the tale of the first woman twice, with variations and contradictions, there were two Eves (and two Adams) in Genesis. </p>
<p>In Genesis 1:27, man and woman were created together in God’s image. In Genesis 2:21-23, however, Adam was created first and later on, Eve was formed from his side, typically his rib. </p>
<p>There are several explanations for the different versions. One argument is that there is no real problem – the first version is simply a preface to the second, more detailed account. An alternative reading is that the two accounts reflect different documents, from different eras, merged by the one compiler. </p>
<p>In Genesis 3 the themes of female disobedience and curiosity rear their problematic heads. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72737/original/image-20150223-21899-17mrjez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Ormsby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This time there wasn’t a jar but a fruit-bearing tree and a talking snake. Like Pandora, Eve could not resist the temptation to disobey. Consequently, a jar was opened in one narrative, and forbidden fruit tasted in another. The end of paradise was the result in both.</p>
<p>Didactic in purpose, both stories expressed societal and religious imperatives: men must work hard because they were complicit in disobeying divine powers; women must be ruled by men because they were disobedient and curious. </p>
<p>But Pandora and Eve pale in comparison to Lilith, the “other woman” in Adam’s life. Her story is told in the <a href="http://jewishchristianlit.com/Topics/Lilith/alphabet.html">Alphabet of Ben Sira</a>, an amalgam of earlier accounts of <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Midrash">Lilith from the Midrashic tradition</a>. Of uncertain date, possibly between the 8-12th centuries AD, the Alphabet named Lilith as Adam’s original wife. </p>
<p>Haughty and defiant, Lilith refused to submit to Adam’s authority, refusing to lay beneath him during intercourse.</p>
<p>Disillusioned with her station, Lilith fled. Free from male authority, she embraced her inner-evil, morphing into a child-stealing demon, which most likely had its origins in a myth explaining mysterious infant mortalities. </p>
<p>Lilith was a terrifying first woman because of her sexual rebellion. By refusing to adopt the missionary position, she challenged masculine authority and was most likely suspected of circumventing the opportunity of conception. Worse still, Lilith’s subsequent career as an agent of destruction made her a threat to life itself. </p>
<p>Enid Blyton never penned a Midrashic collection for kids. That’s just as well. Lilith would have given the Famous Five a run for their money. She did, however, write about Eve in a collection of Bible stories published in 1949. In <a href="http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=1026&title=The+Enid+Blyton+Bible+Stories+-+Old+Testament+1">The Wicked Serpent</a>, Eve, like Enid’s Pandora is naughty but nice. </p>
<p>Enid’s legacy continues in new books for kids that also tone down the nastier features of these myths, but repeat the same messages. So, perhaps it’s time to tell new myths. Better still, to tell the old ones uncensored, in order to lay them bare for interrogation. </p>
<p><br>
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<em>We’re currently commissioning articles on all aspects of religion and mythology. If you’re an academic, and would like to know more, contact the <a href="mailto:paul.dalgarno@theconversation.edu.au">Arts + Culture editor</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What do several early myths have in common? They suggest women must be ruled by men because they are disobedient and curious.Marguerite Johnson, Associate Professor of Ancient History and Classical Languages, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60562012-04-04T20:44:17Z2012-04-04T20:44:17ZSpotify: saviour of the music industry?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9307/original/p5bxdydp-1333511172.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C12%2C978%2C784&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">After success in Europe and the US, subscription-based music streaming service, Spotify is launching in Australia. Could it be a musical saviour?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/capsun</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>International music provider Spotify is preparing for its <a href="http://www.startupsmart.com.au/strategy/spotify-primed-for-australian-launch/201203155689.html">launch into the Australian market</a> later this year. </p>
<p>As a subscription-based streaming service, the success of the Stockholm-based Spotify across Europe and the US has challenged the dominance of Apple’s iTunes in digital music consumption. Spotify is estimated to have three million paying customers, and over ten million using its free service.</p>
<p>Apple and similar retailers such as Nokia, Vodafone, Telstra have until now offered the purchase of individual songs and albums linked to other services or hardware. </p>
<p>For Apple, there was the beauty of the “end to end” model: iTunes music delivered to iPods, iPhones and Macs, completing a healthy circle of consumption and production. Other providers, such as <a href="http://www.last.fm/">Last.fm</a> and <a href="http://www.pandora.com/restricted">the US-restricted Pandora</a> (internet radio libraries not yet available in Australia) are also smart in assisting your song compilations (like this? then you’ll also like this…) through digital processing of your choices.</p>
<p>Overseas streaming services (<a href="http://www.rdio.com/?utm_source=text_AU_adwords&utm_content=Rdio&gclid=CPf0zvWgmq8CFQZNpgodoSnLZw">Rdio</a>, <a href="http://www.rhapsody.com/">Rhapsody</a> and <a href="http://www.pure.com/au/">Pure</a>) operate differently in offering songs through “cloud” services, although “ownership” of songs becomes a problem. </p>
<p>Spotify has some important differences to its existing rivals: it offers a free subscription service with ads (in the UK, £4.99 per month, or A$7.71), or a “premium” service without ads (£9.99 per month).</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=347%2C140%2C1269%2C1853&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not everyone is a Spotify fan. Adele is among artists refusing to use the site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Part of the business model is obviously to entice fans with the free subscription, and then impressing them with the premium service. With its 2011 decision to restrict the playing of a single track to five plays, and a total of ten hours listening per month, this is certainly a big stick to go premium.</p>
<p>It’s also an admission that the free subscription has its limits in terms of future growth for the company. The major recording companies, who have shareholder stakes in Spotify, were not a fan of the strategy, either.</p>
<p>Musicians have also made their feelings known about Spotify’s returns to composers and publishers. In the UK, it’s estimated that a musician gains £0.0041 per stream. On this scale, plays have to be in the millions to recoup to the artist any serious revenue. </p>
<p>This has led to some well-publicised withdrawals by labels and artists (such as Adele and Coldplay) who claim that it’s not worth the effort, and that it might actually hurt sales in other areas.</p>
<p>Co-founder Daniel Ek has consistently argued that a presence on Spotify, even with very low rates of return, is much better than the bleeding of revenue to illegal downloading companies like Pirate Bay. This is one of the reasons why Napster founder Sean Parker has invested in Spotify, as part of the search for the Holy Grail: a digital music service that satisfies artists, recording companies <em>and</em> consumers.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">AC/DC refuse to engage with any digital service.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), legal downloading revenues are slowly starting to matter, with a rise in global digital revenue by 8% in 2011, although overall market sales were down. However, this slow shift to meaningful digital returns isn’t just about making it easier for illegal downloaders to become “legit”, or winning them over. It also requires greater transparency from these large aggregators of content about the true nature of their relationships with music publishers, and royalty rates.</p>
<p>This is a company that now has a serious footprint across key territories, but is apparently yet to go into collective profit. Yet for ease of use, the depth of its song library (over 15 million tracks), and application across everyday media, Spotify remains an attractive proposition.</p>
<p>It will be a major contender in the Australian market, particularly as the NBN is fully rolled out. It has also incorporated many of the features of internet radio rivals that link consumer preferences to what’s in the catalogue.</p>
<p>The company is now in discussions with the Australian subsidiaries of the major labels, and the extent to which it captures iconic Australian artists, past and present, in its catalogue will be crucial. AC/DC, for example, refuse to engage with any digital service, streaming or otherwise.</p>
<p>Let’s be clear. The recording companies have consistently failed to comprehend the shift to digital lifestyles, and their longstanding belief in consumer litigation and perpetual resort to copyright law reform has failed (and in many cases had opposite effects to those intended).</p>
<p>It says an awful lot about the music industry that the key IT companies have dominated legal sales mechanisms in providing affordable digital systems and a decent market share. Spotify will continue to be an interesting experiment in an industry that is still not relaxed and comfortable about the new century. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Homan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>International music provider Spotify is preparing for its launch into the Australian market later this year. As a subscription-based streaming service, the success of the Stockholm-based Spotify across…Shane Homan, Associate Professor, English, Communications and Performance Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.