Conclusions: What Is the Value of Music

In the epilogue, we propose an overall analysis of the transformations of music in the age of platforms, ultimately asking whether and how the value of music has changed in today’s society. We address how complicated and multifaceted the relationship between music and listeners is in a historical moment of deep technological transformation but one in which the musical experience still holds great importance in people’s lives, and thus music is still at the center of people practices. In the end, the book outlines how our contemporary musical experience is not only the product of technological innovation but the result of entangled networks of relationships between companies and listeners, technologies and social needs, and financial strategies and musical cultures: ultimately it is the interaction between all of these elements that is shaping music, its production and consumption in the age of digital platforms.