Rip It Up and Start Again: Creative Labor and the Industrialization of Remix

Abstract

Creative industries rely on workers who use sampling and remix to produce new content assembled from existing materials. In the process, remix cultures are commodified and reshaped by industrial logics. Rip-o-matic videos provide an example. These scissor reels are used as visual storyboards for television commercials. They are produced by video editors who cut and paste clips found on video sharing platforms. Interviews with rip-o-matic producers show the impact of the industrialization of remix on creative workers who face challenges to their ability to assert their creativity, content ownership, and reputation. Other examples, such as social media and fast fashion, nuance the picture. Industrialization also paves the way for automation by generative “AI.” These software tools are based on processes of appropriation and remix that mirror those used by rip-o-matic producers. Remix is in sum at the center of today’s corporate cultural production.