Abstract
In artistic and cultural work, where unions and formal industrial relations institutions have weak influence, market intermediaries often shape the terms of exchange for workers. Focusing on musicians and drawing mainly on examples from France, this article shows how these intermediaries shape employment relations, in particular the distribution of risks and surpluses. While intermediaries and musicians have many shared interests, there is also a structural antagonism between them, which could be exacerbated by digitalization.
Highlights
Intermediaries in cultural fields have been subject to a steady stream of studies, starting with Bourdieu’s discussion of cultural intermediaries in Distinction (1984)
Inspired by John Commons’s (1906) discussion of hiring halls created by American Federation of Musicians local unions, we argue that these intermediaries are centrally important industrial relations actors in the music industry
Among ‘ordinary musicians’ (Perrenoud, 2007), attempts to digitalize artistic intermediation can intensify the structured antagonism between intermediaries and artists themselves as intermediaries become more ‘customer-facing’ (Azzellini et al, 2019; Umney, 2017)
Summary
Intermediaries in cultural fields have been subject to a steady stream of studies, starting with Bourdieu’s discussion of cultural intermediaries in Distinction (1984). We begin by spelling out how cultural work intermediaries shape transactions in these markets, noting the prevalence of highly individualized forms of intermediation over their collective and public counterparts.
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