Why isn’t there an Uber for live music? The digitalisation of intermediaries and the limits of the platform economy

Abstract

Online platforms have disrupted parts of the capitalist economy, but assessing the magnitude of this effect is difficult. Much is known about major platforms, but less about the conditions under which they take over-or fail to take over-a given market. Unlike explanations emphasising slow take-up by entrepreneurs or worker resistance, we argue that historical and organisational characteristics of markets make them resistant to the platform model. In Germany and the UK, intermediaries have digitalised to varying degrees. Three market characteristics have combined to limit 'platformisation':(1) irreducibly qualitative assessments of value; (2) the complexity and contingencies inherent in the task that resist unbundling (3) fragmentation of the organisational field. Hence we show how the dynamics of work in live music limit the traction of the platform model. However, partial and hybrid forms of digitalisation still contribute towards intensified discipline over live music workers, threatening pay and working conditions.

Artistic work intermediaries as industrial relations institutions: The case of musicians

“…We will show that many artistic work intermediaries occupy precarious situations, much like the artists they represent; that intermediaries depend for their livelihoods on the artist’s success on the market; and that both artists and intermediaries are often victims of wider inequalities in music industries transformed by the ‘star system’ and digitalization. We also show that, among ‘ordinary musicians’ (Perrenoud, 2007), attempts to digitalize artistic intermediation can intensify the structured antagonism between intermediaries and artists themselves as intermediaries become more ‘customer-facing’ (Azzellini et al, 2019; Umney, 2017). Recent contributions have advocated more cooperative forms of intermediation adapted to digitalized labour markets (e.g.…”

“…Examples in the United Kingdom include Last Minute Musicians and Alive Network. As yet, however, Azzellini et al (2019) find that there is a weak likelihood of these kinds of digitalized agencies displacing established professional agencies representing elite performers. Instead, they provide a seemingly more open way of accessing intermediaries for musicians outside of the elite, with potential consequences for the forms and distribution of risk, thus intensifying the structured antagonism between musician and intermediary.…”

“…Jeanpierre (2012) suggests that digitalization forces cultural intermediaries to re-evaluate the way they present themselves as evaluators of cultural value. Azzellini et al (2019), in a study of Germany and the United Kingdom, highlight the growing role of digitalized intermediaries, which assemble large rosters of artists in an online repository through a relatively simple ‘sign-up’ procedure (often, artists will be asked simply to submit video or audio clips for approval). These artists can then be browsed and, often, sorted according to price or some form of ‘quality’ or popularity indicator (see also Umney, 2017).…”

“…Situated between producers of artistic products and their clients or employers, they intervene in market transactions by helping artists succeed in the market, influencing their output to make it more marketable, and in other ways influencing the diffusion and circulation of artists’ works. Artistic work intermediaries may work for artists, such as managers or union hiring halls; for employers or customers, such as talent buyers (Foster et al, 2011) or comedy scouts (Friedman, 2014); and for both or either, such as agents and online platforms (Azzellini et al, 2019). Together with other cultural intermediaries 1 such as radio hosts, critics, publishers and record labels, artistic work intermediaries shape the wider cultural landscape and help to determine which artists succeed on the market and which ones are excluded from it.…”

“…Some authors have argued that technological change makes cultural intermediaries superfluous by displacing them with direct transactions between producers and consumers over online platforms (Hirsch and Gruber, 2015). However, empirical studies have found a continued proliferation of intermediaries and a diversification of their functions (Azzellini et al, 2019; Caves, 2000; Jeanpierre and Roueff, 2014; Karpik, 2007; Lizé et al, 2011). Below we review secondary literature and documentary evidence on artistic work intermediaries in music to show how these intermediaries shape working lives.…”