The platformization of music production: How digital audio workstations are turned into platforms of labor market relations

Abstract

Recent decades have seen the proliferation of digital music production technologies, led by digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Pro Tools and Live. The companies behind them, including Avid and Ableton, resemble music distributors in their ongoing process of platformization—that is, in making themselves the foundation of an increasing range of interactions and transactions. The article discusses economic, social, and cultural aspects of platformization before zooming in on key DAW enterprises and the ways in which they have extended their presence across adjacent markets, including record production, live performance, audiovisual media, instrument manufacturing, sample sales, and music education. These companies have gone beyond selling tools to reorganizing the music industry and rearticulating what is needed to prevail in it, thereby intervening in labor market relations in ways that should not remain hidden “backstage.”