Cultural production and platform mediation: A case in music crowdfunding

Abstract

Although a great amount of research has been concerned with the growing relevance of crowdfunding for cultural productions, it is still little investigated how the actual functioning of crowdfunding platforms can affect both the way of conceiving and doing crowdfunding and the financing opportunities and performances of different projects. The article illustrates how this occurs in the case of an Italian crowdfunding platform, through activities of project classification and evaluation and campaign consulting it carries out, which are not visible from the outside. It also points out how these activities are shaped through the constant search for a balance between meritocratic principles and company sustainability. Opening what is usually treated as an organizational black box, the article provides an original contribution that enriches the understanding of the ways in which crowdfunding platforms can influence the production of culture as well as the subjectivities characterized by the neoliberal ethos of self-management and self-entrepreneurship.