So I guess you haven't noticed the music, television, and film industries? You know that those exist correct? All of those things exist because they monetize culture.
Here is a book The Age of Access. It is by an economist (edit: not an economist Jeremy Rifkin. To call him "an economist" is a bit of a misnomer as he is one of the most influential of our time), not a "media theorist". It does not propose solutions to issues, and it is a bit dated albeit in terms of the present it seems a bit prophetic.
He deals extensively with the monetization of culture and theorizes some potential effects thereof.
The point was that money and organization built for the sole purpose of profit tend to foster corruption, and the vast overwhelming majority of our culture is created and sold to us by those very organizations. Hopefully this was a bit more clear.
I know you want to be flippant and play devil's advocate, but I'm not equating some guy in a coffeeshop with his guitar doing free verse spoken word about how great trees are with the music industry as a whole (it's agenda in terms of profit and production) and it's affect on not only how music is produced but WHY music is produced... that is so stupid it is almost insulting.
EDIT: and my first comment was actually downvoted, guess that was some of the people that the new "culture" has "made smarter". Hilarious fun to be had here today it seems.