Introduction: The Current Hotness and Coldness of Recorded Sound as a Medium.

The obsolescence of the compact disc, or CD, at the hands of downloading of song files appropriately fit into Marshall McLuhan’s concept of the reversal of mediums. The CD was the pinnacle incarnation of the phonograph, a hot medium. In the time of the Internet however, it was inevitable that recorded music become a more participatory medium. Despite attempts by the Record Industry Association of America at disrupting the emergence of this new medium through litigation against its users, and legitimization through corporate appropriation, downloading has become the dominant medium for receiving recorded sound.