Write, record, optimize? How musicians reflect on music optimization strategies in the creative production process

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6443567
AutoresNick Polak (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Julian Schaap (0000-0002-3656-4225, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen27
Número8
Páginas4773-4789
Fecha de publicación2024-04-06
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448241243095
OpenAlexW4394013383
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas38

Musicians are believed to increasingly “optimize” their music to positively influence discoverability and engagement on music and social media platforms. Common examples of such optimization strategies are skipping intros, quickly moving to the chorus, or inserting danceable “hooks.” But to what extent are optimization strategies actively considered in the creative production process? And, if so, in what stage of production? In this article, we explore how professional musicians reflect on the opportunities and constraints that optimization strategies offer in the creative music production process. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with early to mid-career professional musicians and songwriters, we identify four different positions between “pure” artistic autonomy and “pure” commercialism that musicians typically take on in relation to these optimization strategies. We demonstrate that musicians are aware that sonically “working towards” platforms may bring economic success, while simultaneously maintaining a general reluctance towards outright commercial, “full optimization” ideologies

Aesthetics · Art · Economics · Microeconomics · Process (computing · Production (economics · Programming language · Computer Science · Diverse Music Education Insights · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Neuroscience and Music Perception