The forms of value creation in music intermediaries - Intermediation and disintermediation in the music industry

This thesis project aims to research and analyze the changes that digitalization brought to the music industry while in particular; the research focuses on the forms of value creation in music intermediaries. Accordingly, the qualitative research’s target is to investigate the means that music intermediaries use in order to create value, remaining relevant in the era of digitalization and online distribution, where physical record sales tend to disappear. Moreover, the research was designed and based on two theoretical arguments. On one hand a number of writers and researchers that indicate the end of music intermediation as emerging technologies remove the barriers between artists and listeners. For them, this new era of independents, eliminates traditional monopolies in music production and consumption such as the record labels and the radio. On the other hand, many suggest that digitalization brings new aspects in the music industry as it creates new necessities. Therefore this projects aims to dive deeper in the changes that digital technology brings in the field of music intermediation as well as the transformations that music intermediaries have to confront. Thus, through a holistic approach to music intermediation, the research tried to investigate how music intermediaries continue to create value in an uncharted period where new models of music consumption, such as Spotify or YouTube, emerge. Furthermore, the research approach was based on the importance of traditional or new gatekeepers in the field of music business as well as the elements that help them to remain sustainable for the industry. Thus, through ten exploratory expert interviews, relevant questions based on a given literature were asked. Subsequently, music intermediaries from several types of companies such as record labels, music media, radio or live events operators were contacted and answered questions based on given themes. Hence, concepts like the “digitalization of record industry», the “necessity of contemporary intermediation” and the” positive or negative aspects of digital transformation in music intermediaries”, were explored throughout the interviews. Ultimately, besides the methods that music intermediaries use in order to remain relevant in the music industry, this project also wants to fuel the conversation regarding intermediation in the larger spectrum of media, culture and entertainment. Similarly, as the web creates new frames in creation and distribution, it challenges simultaneously, the role of intermediaries not only in music but in several fields such as media and creative industries.