Democratization and DIY Careers in the Popular Music Field. The Pros and Cons of Digital Platforms experienced by Independent Musicians

Over the past ten years there has been a multiplication of digital technologies and webplatforms that enable to autonomously manage fund-raising, production, promotion, and distribution of musical projects. Such tools are often said to extend self-production and make it more efficient, allowing DIY musicians to more easily combine autonomy and sustainable income so as to develop DIY careers. However, the potential opportunities opened up by specific media depend on their interpretations and usages, which in turn are influenced by the resources available to different users, their aspirations and ideals, their habitus, and the wider changes affecting social context and the music field in which they operate with its agents and institutions. This paper will refer to the first phase of an ongoing research aimed at investigating if, how, and under which conditions, digital tools and web-services actually contribute to democratize and facilitate the chances to develop satisfying DIY music careers. More specifically, it will present the results of fifteen in-depth interviews to long-time – and still active – independent musicians aimed at investigating which changes they have experienced in their work – especially (but not only) in relation to the introduction of web-platforms supporting self-production – and what affects different perceptions regarding improvements or worsening of both their situation and of independent music production in general.