Aproximações entre músico “independente”, cultura digital e empreendedorismo

Abstract

In this text, we present some results obtained from the research project called “Entrepreneurship of the self, digital culture and creative processes: ways of being a professional musician since the COVID-19 pandemic”, in which we analyzed, from the theoretical-methodological perspective of Cultural Studies (HALL, 1997), the strategies executed by independent musicians (CERQUEIRA, 2017; GALLETTA, 2018; VICENTE, 2010; NAKANO, 2006) from Rio Grande do Sul to perform their activities in different settings of professional performance. We addressed the production of ways of being an independent musician at the interface of two contemporary imperatives: the culture of entrepreneurship (CERQUEIRA, 2017; GADELHA COSTA, 2009) and the digital culture (STALDER, 2021; BORTOLAZZO, 2020; JENKINS, 2009). Furthermore, we aimed to analyze how musicians understand themselves in their professional activities and how they conduct their careers. Along with self-education, there is a significant network of knowledge and skills, in the form of mutual assistance and exchange of services. Their performances take place amidst a certain instability and uncertainty regarding professional activities and, at the same time, require the musicians to invest, often without specialized guidance, both in their own training and in the achievement of skills and competencies to carry out their activities, increasingly mediated by audiovisual production and digital communication technologies. Moreover, musicians attempt to produce in an authorial way, by imprinting their mark and their own identity on their musical production, but they simultaneously need to face the dilemma of producing, almost uninterruptedly, consumable content, depending on the competitive interests of the market.