Risk and freedom for independent musicians in Toronto

Hracs, B.J. (2011) Risk and freedom for independent musicians in Toronto (Martin Prosperity Institute Working Papers) Toronto, CA. The Martin Prosperity Institute 38pp.

Record type: Monograph (Working Paper)

Abstract

This paper applies Ulrich Beck’s (1992) conceptualization of risk and reflexivity to entrepreneurial employment in the creative economy. Drawing on 65 interviews with musicians in Toronto this paper documents the ways in which digital technologies and independent music production fragments work, both temporally and spatially. In so doing, the findings presented nuance our understanding of employment risk. Although digital technologies have democratized the music industry and furnished musicians with unprecedented autonomy, the demands of independent music production constrain this newfound freedom. Using the literature on governmentality, this paper demonstrates that as neo-liberal regimes reconfigure independent musicians as entrepreneurial subjects, these workers are governed through their freedom. Ultimately, this paper argues that digital technologies, independent music production and entrepreneurial subjectivities intensify existing employment risk and introduce a range of new conflicts, insecurities and barriers to creativity

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