Integrating Online Publics and Performance Events

Abstract

The field we have analyzed in this study can be described as a mesh of artistic creativity, social interaction across very different media, technological advancements and versatility, and general innovation in lifestyle concepts outside of any usual career planning. The musicians in the field were experts in many areas, and they had to be. Producing works of art was the basic prerequisite for their existence, but most of them could not rely on the help of experienced studio owners and sound engineers, as the generations of professional musicians in the 20th century had done. And the activities required for getting themselves and their works known among the publics they targeted were fulfilled only in part by mass media organizations struggling for their own survival. Most of the publicity-gaining work was left to the musicians themselves. The ability to sell large numbers of physical representations of music releases with an equally large margin to support huge production, distribution, promotion, and, indirectly via marketing budgets, journalistic organizations, was gone entirely for this scene. At the same time, the means to pursue their careers on their own had more or less all become available to the artists in our field.