Selling Out: Musicians, Autonomy, and Compromise in the Digital Age

Abstract

Charges of "selling out" and debates about the boundaries of cultural autonomy have played a pivotal role in the development of popular music as a legitimate and "serious" art form. With promotional strategies and commercial business practices now practically inseparable from the core activities previously associated with music making, the relevance of such concepts and the values that underpin them are questioned by industry experts, musicians, and fans. In this article, we explore how popular music making and perspectives on selling out have been shaped by digitalization, promotionalism, and globalization.

Towards ‘Embedded Non-creative Work’? Administration, digitisation and the recorded music industry

“…It is necessary, finally, to articulate non-creative values. Admins' (counter-)cultural, often anti-corporate, commitment to popular music (Klein et al, 2017) blends into positive identification with aspects of technical infrastructure. Stressing occupational humility (especially in deference to artists) within a cultural community united by a common project, if not shared practice, they simultaneously exhibit strong defences of bureaucracy (duty, due process, accountability) often sparked by indignation towards "creative" colleagues' romanticised misperceptions.…”

“I will survive”: Online streaming and the chart survival of music tracks

“…However, despite the challenges and threats to market dominance posed by online streaming services, major labels continue to outperform others in terms of album and track sales (Klein, Meier, & Powers, 2017). Even facing challenges to their traditional functions in the value chain of commercial music, major labels are still likely to play a significant role in terms of development, marketing, and promotion that artists may not be able to provide for themselves (Bockstedt et al, 2006).…”

In Sync? Music Supervisors, Music Placement Practices, and Industrial Change

“…The transformation of the music industries may have been driven by digitalization, but it has been shaped significantly by the growth of promotional culture, in which elements of marketing and branding became standard filters through which communication takes place (see, for example, Aronczyk and Powers 2010;Davis 2013;McAllister and West 2013). Promotional culture itself can be understood as a response to the increased competition and clutter enabled by digitalization: promotional culture and digitalization have fed off each other to the extent that creative practices like music-making become necessarily intertwined with commercial opportunities (see Klein et al 2017). The role of the music supervisor has always had links to strategies of cross-promotion: indeed, Smith argues that the "multifarious cross-promotional strategy" between film and music industries "gave rise to several important developments in the fields of film scoring and film marketing after 1975" (1998: 189) including the formal appearance of music supervisors.…”