SoundCloud and Bandcamp as Alternative Music Platforms

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2414061
AutoresD Hesmondhalgh (0000-0001-5940-9191, University of Leeds, autor correspondente), Ellis Jones (0000-0003-0351-8350, University of Oslo), Andreas Rauh (0000-0003-3298-3403, Dublin City University)
Ano2019
Volume5
Fascículo4
Data de publicação2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Media + Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2056305119883429
OpenAlexW2971212444
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas45
Referências citadas23

We examine two 'producer-oriented' audio distribution platforms, SoundCloud and Bandcamp, which have been important repositories for the hopes of musicians, commentators, and audiences that digital technologies and cultural platforms might promote democratization of the cultural industries, and we compare their achievements and limitations in this respect. We show that the emancipatory elements enshrined in SoundCloud's bottom-up abundance are compromised by two elements that underpin the platform: the problematic 'culture of connectivity' of the social media systems to which it must remain integrally linked and the systems of intellectual property that the firm has been increasingly compelled to enforce. By contrast, it seems that Bandcamp has been relatively stable in financial terms while being at odds with some key aspects of 'platformization,' and we explore the possibility that some of the platform's apparent success may derive from how its key features makes it attractive to indie musicians and fans drawn to an independent ethos. Nevertheless, we argue that even while in some respects Bandcamp acts more effectively as a cultural alternative than does SoundCloud, Bandcamp is also congruent economically and discursively with how platforms capitalize on the activity of self-managing, self-auditing, specialist, worker-users

Business · Democracy · Democratization · Ethos · Indie film · Intellectual property · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Computer Science · Copyright and Intellectual Property · Digital Games and Media · Digital Platforms and Economics · Law