Platforms: Why Music Depends on Them

This chapter addresses the emergence of digital platforms as the most relevant technological artifacts for the reshaping of contemporary music practices. We start with a more general reflection on the role of platforms in contemporary society, describing some of the main mechanisms of operation that distinguish what has been defined as a platform society (van Dijck et al., Platform society. Oxford University Press, 2018). We then move on to describe some of the implications of the rise of platforms in the cultural industries sector, highlighting shifts that occurred in power relations within the music industry. We also trace the origins and history of one of the major music platforms, Spotify, with its hegemonic place in today’s music industry. The central theme of this chapter is thus the political economy of platforms, foregrounding the question of the symbolic and economic power that these platforms are assuming within cultural industries.