Description
Paper presentation - on ZoomSession musicians and remote home-recording:
Investigating post-COVID industry practices and the attribution of cultural and economic capital
Recording studio spaces have changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Larger purpose-built commercial studios have been replaced by smaller digital studios, often operated from domestic premises. As technology became less expensive and internet speeds increased, high quality home recording setups became the domain of not only producers and engineers, but also singers and instrumentalists. These studios initially functioned as personal songwriting and production suites, but physical isolation caused by COVID-19 catalysed them into commercial remote satellite studios where performers often assumed the additional roles of engineer and producer. This ‘turn’ resulted not only in the loss of workers with specialist skills (esp. studio engineers) but also prompts questions around the expectations that phonogram producers now have of performers.
Performers with expansive skillsets, in particular session musicians and singers who have a home recording studio and can also produce and engineer, are now a valuable commodity. Those with the highest quality and best sounding equipment are worth even more. However, is this value analogous to the economic and cultural capital attributed to the performer?
This paper interrogates the issue of adequate acknowledgement and remuneration resulting from the merger of roles and responsibilities and discusses the resulting domestic and commercial losses and affordances to the performers’ practice; on one hand interaction, networking, immediacy, quality and authenticity and on the other, continuity, creativity and convenience. It is proposed that there is a disjunction between value and outcome that is yet to be adequately addressed.
Period | 23 Feb 2024 |
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Event type | Conference |
Location | Vienna, AustriaShow on map |
Degree of Recognition | International |