Exploring the (un)changing nature of cultural intermediaries in digitalised markets: insights from independent music

ABSTRACT

This study explores the evolution of the music industry in the digital age by focusing on market intermediation. Drawing on Karpik’s (2010) economics of singularities, it aims to understand how digital technologies have transformed cultural intermediaries in the context of the independent music market. More-than-human (n)ethnography supported by depth interviews and secondary data analysis is used to provide new insights into the persistent function of judgement devices in digitalised markets. The findings highlight the material and axiological affordances of judgement devices and show how they provide opportunities for consumers whose intentions affect the actions of judgement devices. Although digitalisation has enhanced consumer empowerment, our study also reveals how actors of the indie music market experience the persistence of power relations in the music industry and the paradoxes of digitalisation. By focusing on the complex nature of technocultural changes, this paper offers a nuanced understanding of the (un)changing role of cultural intermediaries in digitalised markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Independent music
• digitalised markets
• affordances
• judgement devices
• consumer empowerment
• ethnography

Acknowledgements

This research is based on the first author’s dissertation. The authors sincerely thank JMM’s guest editors Dominique Bourgeon-Renault, Maud Derbaix, Elodie Jarrier, & Christine Petr, the three anonymous reviewers, the Editorial Office Administrator Fiona Lees, the marketing faculties at the University of Rouen Normandie, and the University of Lille. In addition, the authors thank Baptiste Cléret, Renaud Garcia-Bardidia and Hélène Gorge for their helpful feedback on this project as well as the informants who shared their experience with them. The first author would also like to gratefully thank Zeynep Arsel for her hospitality during his stay at Concordia University in Montréal where the idea for this article started to take shape.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The economy of qualities refers to the work of both Callon and Karpik in economic sociology. As McFall’s (2014) points out, ‘the qualification literature, then, is far from a unified approach but it nevertheless prompts a very different way of seeing the relation between production and consumption and the role of intermediaries” (p. 50). For more details on the debate between Callon and Karpik, see Karpik’s, 2010 and McFall’s (2014).

2. https://bandcamp.com/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Boris Collet

Boris Collet is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Lille. His research interests are in market dynamics, alternative consumption cultures and the transformations of consumer culture in the Anthropocene. Contexts for this work have included music, arts, and environmentalism.

Eric Rémy

Eric Rémy is a professor at the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier where he leads the LGCO management sciences research unit. His research interests are in the area of Consumer Culture Theory focusing primarily on different consumer cultures to understand and facilitate change in practices related to the Anthropocene. His work has been published in various journals including Consumption, Markets & Culture, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Management.