Artist-Entrepreneurship

Introduction At first glance, the reader may wonder what Theodore W. Adorno and Chris Anderson have in common and what that has to do with researching the music industry. On the one hand, a sophisticated German philosopher; a critical theorist of the 20th century; a member of the renowned Frankfurt School and a follower of Karl Marx’s thoughts on capitalism and society. On the other, Chris Anderson, a child of the digital economy, a blog writer, a journalist, a business entrepreneur and, according to The Time 100 , one of the most influential thinkers of the new millennium. Both were (respectively are) critically reflecting the media landscape of their time. In this paper I use the ideas of both thinkers and demonstrate the Mediamorphosis in the wake of technological innovations at the example of the music industry. On the one hand a centralized media system dominated by large media conglomerates, on the other side a democratic media system driven by prosumers. Thes two contrasting m

Celebrated by the press as the democratization of art production, belittled by the established music industry as amateurism, hailed by artists as long awaited independence and neglected by the academic community; Artist-Entrepreneurship warrants a critical in-depth examination. The media celebrates individual examples where musicians become famous without ever signing a record deal. The bedroom is the recording studio, iTunes the record store and MySpace and Facebook the promotion tools – a record label, what for? And then of course, there was Radiohead … But after the initial enthusiasm, the music industry bashing and the 'everybody-is-an-artist-party', it is time to ask for a more objective picture. What about the other 99.9% of Non-Radioheads? Can Artist-Entrepreneurship provide a sustainable business model for new artists? Traditionally, record labels act as gatekeepers for the artists and audience by providing a minimum level of quality and supply regulation - b