Just for the fun of it? Contemporary strategies for making, distributing and gifting music

Abstract

Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it directly to consumers. The traditional economic relations and structures of the recording and copyright industries may largely be bypassed through processes of disintermediation, and musicians have much greater control over their own recorded works than is typically afforded by the commercial recording companies. Many musicians have adopted alternative strategies for making their music available to the public, and it is on one broad subset of these musicians that this paper will focus.