Competitive Remix Practice and Networks of Support in Electronic Dance Music Economies

Abstract

The rapid development and dissemination of social media fueled competition platforms has led to immediate shifts in the practices of creative workers in fields related to contest offerings. In Electronic Dance Music (EDM), crowdsourced competitive remix platforms have reoriented certain practices into networks of competition, where winning distinction is often only part of a larger process of further enmeshing DJs, music producers and their supporters in the social media fueled ecosystems that these websites have created. In order to begin to analyze the impact of remix competitions on producers and their personal and professional networks, I intend to trace a line of recent history and debate to reveal the connections linking EDM websites, labels, marketers, DJs, producers and supporters and their engagement with remix competition platforms. I will examine the call for support that is involved in so much of socially networked EDM communication between contestants and their peers surrounding these remix contests.