Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ILEF DERGISI, cilt.11, sa.2, ss.88-121, 2024 (ESCI)
Platformization and the platform economy are creating new challenges for artists in terms of music production and monetization. The algorithmic curation applied by music streaming platforms plays an important role in shaping listener preferences and artist production. Platform capitalism determines digital business models through algorithmic curation, while independent artists try to turn their digital skills into performance capital and generate income within a "do it yourself" culture. This study examines the strategies developed by independent musicians in Turkey and their positionalities in the face of the phenomenon of platformization within the context of the relationship between the volume of artists' performance capital and digital capital. The aim of the study is to find out how platformization affects the position of independent artists. Through a field study, the paper focuses on how independent artists understand the phenomenon of platformization and the concepts of performance capital and digital capital. In-depth interviews lasting between forty-five and ninety minutes were conducted with artists participating in the field research to illuminate the extent to which current actors in the music industry understand and experience platformization, the context surrounding independent artists, and the relationships, conflicts, and reconciliations that shape their positions. The field research started in October 2021 and continued until June 2022. The research findings indicate that in the face of the phenomenon of platformization in Turkey, artists are striving to expand the volume of their performance capital and digital capital, and that the responsibility for making it in the industry falls on the shoulders of the artists. In this context, independent artists in Turkey hold an optimistic outlook towards global music streaming platforms and the platform economy, but they are in a vulnerable position in the face of digital business models. Under the platformization process, the unequal position of independent artists in the music industry in Turkey continues.