In this article, we will examine the role and place of the street musician, their contribution to the urban soundscape and the ways in which this has been informed and (re)shaped by recent advances in music technology. Despite their global omnipresence, street musicians have seldom been the focus of contemporary scholarly research on music-making and performance. Historically, the street musician has been perceived and depicted as a romantic folk figure, one moving through and working in the urban environment in an ad hoc manner. However, as our research reveals, through the diversification of street music and the steady uptake of new music performance technologies, street musicians are forging different forms of presence in contemporary urban settings, their music becoming an inextricable aspect of the contemporary urban soundscape. Drawing on face-to-face interviews and participant observation work conducted in Brisbane, Australia, during late 2010 and early 2011, we endeavour here to bring street musicians further into the academic dialogues surrounding musicians and performance and in doing so further highlight the centrality of digital music tools within the work of contemporary street music performance.
As elsewhere, the music industry in Queensland comprises two tiers. The first tier is composed of products and services engaged by major music labels and commercially successful artists who at times attract significant sales. The second tier — or what is sometimes referred to as the ‘grassroots’ (Gibson, 2002) — largely consists of independent musicians, production personnel and producers attracting both niche and at times mainstream audiences. Characterised by informally networked micro-economies, independent artists, niche markets and the exploitation of new technologies, the second tier is also of interest to cultural researchers, who have tended to concentrate on subcultural music communities and music produced outside of the mass market first tier. A mapping survey which examined the Queensland music industry in terms of size, location, income and activity is complemented by interviews with musicians, label owners, production personnel and others involved in the music ‘scene’. We explore how second-tier practices (such as a reliance on social networking to achieve recordings and performance opportunities, as well as DIY culture and innovative business approaches) offer alternative methods for ‘doing music’ and generating value in the creative industries.
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