Antoni Roig, Gemma San CornelioUniversitat Oberta de Catalunya

DCC ECREA Workshop – Bonn, 3-4 of October, 2013

1. Research background2. Connection to previous research: music and participatory practices3. Participatory music practices: an initial taxonomy proposal4. Objectives and research questions5. Case study: Beck’s Song Reader6. Further research

The recording industry under a continuous pressure to re-invent itself (Sterne, 2006; Bull, 2007; Jacobson, 2010; Magaudda, 2011)

– First cultural industry where specific technocultural changes are experienced: file sharing, mobility, remixing practices, streaming services, etc.

– Changes in the materiality of music : need to introduce added value and adapt to emerging practices of consumption.

Like in other domains of cultural production, shift towards establishing closer ties between artists and fans, with lesser mediation from traditional cultural industries.

Need to attend to

Complex nature of engagement

Contradictory discourses on participation (co-option)

Connection with our previous research in creative practices and participation in new media:

– CREATIVE research project, funded by MICINN (HAR2010-18982)

– Modding practices and co-creative communities.– Fanworks.– Participatory filmmaking– DIY video production

• Creative communities and conditions for co-creation: labour and informal markets, conceptualization of the different approaches to co-creation (Banks and Potts, 2010, Bauwens, 2009, Banks and Deuze, 2009, Hesmondalgh, 2010 )

• Attention to conflict, negotiation and change in participatory creative processes, motivations, rewards (Roig et al, forthcoming; San Cornelio et al, 2013) with an ethnographic approach to creative communities based on practice theory (Schatzki, 1996, Couldry, 2004)

• Reappropiation of cultural objects and processes (remixes, spoofs, mashups…) and fanworks as collective creation (creative canon, affective ties towards source texts and communities, collective gatekeeping)

• Industrial interest in the ‘crowds’ and DIY production (crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, co-option) (Roig, Sánchez-Navarro, Leivobitz, 2012)

• Social networking (myspace, facebook…)• Collective financing• Open licences and remix• Personalization of music experience• Multimedia/Transmedia/Interaction/Apps• Calls to collaboration (Co-creation) in processes:

– Lyrics– Crowdsourced Music videos– Album personalization– Fan Contests (versions)– Social experiences in music listening (i.e. Soundcloud)– Contributing as a performer or a composer in a collective endeavour– Arrange and perform versions of yet unreleased tracks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_1726364903&feature=iv&src_vid=3r3BOZ6QQtU&v=t4z66VzcvO0&noredirect=1

We want to focus on some specific kind of musical projects which present themselves as participatory, observe emerging practices and analyze them in terms of cultural production, creative communities, labour and transformative potential. Our main research questions are stated as follows:

–How are the rules for collaboration established and in which ways they account for participatory practices?–How the relationship between the different cultural agents in participatory musical projects is shaped?–What’s the role of expertise in participatory musical projects? –How canon is produced in the case of open reinterpretation of non-recorded music?

• Song Reader by Beck

‘Official’ timeline: how canon is built

Project announced

Book released

London live premiere

Sonos studio exhibition at LA

Beck perform some songs live

Song Reader Concert (Beck with guests)

August 2012 December 2012 February 2013 May 2013 July 20133 18

Fan timeline

Project announced

Book released

NYC Live premiere

London live premiere

Sonos studio exhibition at LA

Beck perform some songs live

Song Reader Concert (Beck with guests)

August 2012 December 2012 February 2013 May 2013 July 20133 18

First tracks/ albums released

• Appropriation of unrecorded songs by a renowned artist, like in the Song Reader case boosts relevant participatory cultural practices.

• However, this participatory endeavour is conditioned by industrial practices and creative freedom potentially limited by canon.

• Transformative potential is yet to be seen.

FURTHER RESEARCH• In depth analysis/ timeline of fan releases• Attention to visual aesthetics and materiality• In-depth interviews with cultural agents.• Attention to distribution, self-promotion and commercialization.