Rick Everts

This article explores a small sample of musicians in two European musical contexts – the Netherlands and the UK. It examines the relationship between the conditions of national music industries and the strategies used to negotiate a career in music and the extent to which musicians frame their careers as entrepreneurs. Interview data from two projects with early-career musicians form the basis of our secondary comparative analysis. We argue that their strategizing can be framed as a set of responses to their local structural conditions. However, neither set of responses produces market advantage. Instead, traditional power and economic relations that reinforce the logic of the hegemonic mainstream industry tend to prevail, whereby only a very small fraction of the aspiring musicians can sustain themselves financially in music.

This study addresses the role of reputation in the career building strategy of early-career musicians in a transforming music industry. Drawing from interviews with 21 musicians, we find that musicians continue to believe that building their reputations within the established music industry is important for career success, despite technological changes that could lead them to focus instead on alternative career strategies. Our analysis proceeds in two stages that broadly reveal how market culture shapes workers' strategies. First, we discuss how musicians put considerable effort towards achieving particular career milestones that they believe will signal success to industry intermediaries. Second, we show that new technologies that connect artists directly to audiences without the need for intermediaries have allowed musicians to pursue new career building strategies. However, they have not eliminated musicians' belief in appealing to industry insiders through milestones. Even though achieving industry milestones may not lead to immediate economic benefits, musicians pursue them because (1) they believe that backing from industry intermediaries may result in later success and (2) they value the symbolic appeal and romance of being part of the industry.

This study addresses the role of reputation in the career building strategy of early-career musicians in a transforming music industry. Drawing from interviews with 21 musicians, we find that musicians continue to believe that building their reputations within the established music industry is important for career success, despite technological changes that could lead them to focus instead on alternative career strategies. Our analysis proceeds in two stages that broadly reveal how market culture shapes workers' strategies. First, we discuss how musicians put considerable effort towards achieving particular career milestones that they believe will signal success to industry intermediaries. Second, we show that new technologies that connect artists directly to audiences without the need for intermediaries have allowed musicians to pursue new career building strategies. However, they have not eliminated musicians' belief in appealing to industry insiders through milestones. Even though achieving industry milestones may not lead to immediate economic benefits, musicians pursue them because (1) they believe that backing from industry intermediaries may result in later success and (2) they value the symbolic appeal and romance of being part of the industry.

Menig kunstsocioloog heeft zich gebogen over de eigenzinnige economie van de kunsten. Omdat een kunstwerk geen gebruikswaarde heeft, is de totstandkoming van zijn waarde afhankelijk van vele andere factoren: wat is de reputatie van een kunstenaar? Hoe wordt het werk ontvangen door het publiek? Hoe steekt het kunstveld in elkaar? Onderzoek naar deze dynamieken richt zich doorgaans op hoe deze waarde tot stand komt binnen kunstvelden en hoe dit de manier waarop kunstenaars hun werk maken beinvloedt. [...]

This paper explores the working life of early-career musicians after technological innovations transformed the music industry. Based on in-depth interviews, a diary questionnaire study and post-questionnaire interviews with 17 early-career pop musicians aiming to build a career with their act in the Dutch industry, we investigate what day-to-day activities they perform and how they value these work activities. The analysis reveals that musicians perform a wide variety of non-creative work activities, including DIY and entrepreneurial tasks. Moreover, they spend over 40 percent of their time on creative tasks, and, remarkably, devote minimal time to social media. In addition, three accounts of value were identified which shape the way musicians perceive their work, as they understand their work in pop music as art, as a business or as a hobby, transcending the traditional art-commerce dichotomy. This way, the paper contributes to our understanding on the nature of work and how early-career workers perceive its value in the creative industries.