This is a presentation by Gemma San Cornelio and Antoni Roig (UOC) for the last ECREA Digital Culture Workshop, which was held in Bonn on the 3rd and 4th of October, 2013. In our presentation we presented our ongoing research process regarding engagement of music fans in creative processes. We offer a preliminar taxonomy of forms of engagement in music production and afterwards, a case analysis of Beck Hansen's Sheet music project Song Reader.

1. Antoni Roig, Gemma San Cornelio
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
DCC ECREA Workshop – Bonn, 3-4 of October, 2013

2. 1. Research background
2. Connection to previous research: music and participatory practices
3. Participatory music practices: an initial taxonomy proposal
4. Objectives and research questions
5. Case study: Beck’s Song Reader
6. Further research

3. The recording industry under a continuous pressure to re-invent itself
(Sterne, 2006; Bull, 2007; Jacobson, 2010; Magaudda, 2011)
– First cultural industry where specific technocultural changes are
experienced: file sharing, mobility, remixing practices, streaming
services, etc.
– Changes in the materiality of music : need to introduce added
value and adapt to emerging practices of consumption.

4. Like in other domains of cultural production, shift towards
establishing closer ties between artists and fans, with lesser
mediation from traditional cultural industries.
Need to attend to
Complex nature of engagement
Contradictory discourses on participation (co-option)

5. Connection with our previous research in creative practices and
participation in new media:
– CREATIVE research project, funded by MICINN (HAR2010-
18982)
– Modding practices and co-creative communities.
– Fanworks.
– Participatory filmmaking
– DIY video production

6. • Creative communities and conditions for co-creation: labour and informal markets,
conceptualization of the different approaches to co-creation (Banks and Potts,
2010, Bauwens, 2009, Banks and Deuze, 2009, Hesmondalgh, 2010 )
• Attention to conflict, negotiation and change in participatory creative processes,
motivations, rewards (Roig et al, forthcoming; San Cornelio et al, 2013) with an
ethnographic approach to creative communities based on practice theory (Schatzki,
1996, Couldry, 2004)
• Reappropiation of cultural objects and processes (remixes, spoofs, mashups…)
and fanworks as collective creation (creative canon, affective ties towards source
texts and communities, collective gatekeeping)
• Industrial interest in the ‘crowds’ and DIY production (crowdfunding, crowdsourcing,
co-option) (Roig, Sánchez-Navarro, Leivobitz, 2012)

7. • Social networking (myspace, facebook…)
• Collective financing
• Open licences and remix
• Personalization of music experience
• Multimedia/Transmedia/Interaction/Apps
• Calls to collaboration (Co-creation) in processes:
– Lyrics
– Crowdsourced Music videos
– Album personalization
– Fan Contests (versions)
– Social experiences in music listening (i.e. Soundcloud)
– Contributing as a performer or a composer in a collective endeavour
– Arrange and perform versions of yet unreleased tracks

9. We want to focus on some specific kind of musical projects which present
themselves as participatory, observe emerging practices and analyze them in
terms of cultural production, creative communities, labour and transformative
potential. Our main research questions are stated as follows:
–How are the rules for collaboration established and in which ways they account
for participatory practices?
–How the relationship between the different cultural agents in participatory musical
projects is shaped?
–What’s the role of expertise in participatory musical projects?
–How canon is produced in the case of open reinterpretation of non-recorded
music?

10. • Song Reader by Beck

11. ‘Official’ timeline: how canon is built
Project
announced
Book
released
London live
premiere
Sonos studio
exhibition at
LA
Beck perform
some songs live
Song Reader
Concert
(Beck with
guests)
August 2012 December 2012 February 2013 May 2013 July 2013
3 18

12. Fan timeline
Project
announced
Book
released
NYC Live
premiere
London live
premiere
Sonos studio
exhibition at
LA
Beck perform
some songs live
Song Reader Concert (Beck
August 2012 December 2012 February 2013 May 2013 July 2013
3 18
First tracks/
albums released

16. • Appropriation of unrecorded songs by a renowned artist, like in the Song
Reader case boosts relevant participatory cultural practices.
• However, this participatory endeavour is conditioned by industrial practices
and creative freedom potentially limited by canon.
• Transformative potential is yet to be seen.
FURTHER RESEARCH
• In depth analysis/ timeline of fan releases
• Attention to visual aesthetics and materiality
• In-depth interviews with cultural agents.
• Attention to distribution, self-promotion and commercialization.