how do music artists view success?
TRANSCRIPT
UNVEILING THE ROADS TO SUCCESS FOR MUSIC ARTISTS
- HOW DO MUSIC ARTISTS VIEW CAREER
SUCCESS AND DO SOCIAL NETWORKS PLAY A ROLE IN ACHIEVING THIS SUCCESS?
Master Thesis – July 6, 2012 .
PRODUCERS: Dr. Josje Dikkers & Drs. Anne Nederveen-Pieterse
COMPOSER: Thomas Trip (1702254)
E-MAIL: [email protected]
ALL TRACKS WRITTEN BY THOMAS TRIP. PUBLISHED BY THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM. MASTER BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, SPECIALIZATION: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. ALL TRACKS PRODUCED BY DR. JOSJE DIKKERS AND DRS. ANNE NEDERVEEN-PIETERSE. ENGINEERING BY CAROLIN OSSENKOP. MASTERED BY THOMAS TRIP. © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. UNAUTHORIZED COPYING, REPRODUCTION, HIRING, LENDING, PUBLIC PERFORMANCE AND BROADCASTING PROHIBITED.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis master thesis is the result of discovering and traveling various roads of the scientific world as a
result of the Human Resource Management specialization of the Business Administration Master
program at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It is the end of the years I have spent developing my
student career at this university. Years that have passed incredibly fast. However, I believe that is a
good sign. This thesis has existed in various research strategies, forms and lengths and has received
guidance from multiple perspectives, which resulted in both challenges as well as significant
learning experiences.
As a result, in order of appearance, I would like to thank Josje Dikkers for her supervision,
enthusiasm and trust in this thesis up until the moment our roads had to split up. Additionally, Jaap
Boter’s knowledge on the music, arts and entertainment industry has been useful for understanding
this thesis’ research setting.
Subsequently, I would like to thank Anne Nederveen-Pieterse for having the courage to dive into
the qualitative world by taking over the supervision of this thesis and for her helpful use of human
and social capital during the several phases in the process of writing this thesis. Additionally, I
would like to thank Carolin Ossenkop for sharing her qualitative knowledge.
This thesis would not have existed without the willingness of the music artists to participate in the
interviews. I would like to express my gratitude to all the artists for their interesting and useful
narratives.
Lastly, I am thankful to my family, friends, roommates and band for their love, trust and endless
interesting discussions with regard to this thesis.
Thomas Trip
TRACKLISTI. INTRO pp. 1
1:10 RESEARCH QUESTION pp. 31:20 SUB-QUESTIONS pp. 31:30 SETLIST pp. 3
II. CAREER SUCCESS pp. 4
2:10 INTRODUCTION pp. 42:20 CAREERS pp. 42:30 THE PROTEAN CAREER pp. 52:40 CAREER SUCCESS pp. 72:41 OBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS INDICATORS pp. 82:42 SUBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS INDICATORS pp. 82:50 CONCLUSION pp. 9
III. INTERLUDE: THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY pp. 10
3:10 INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN GENERAL pp. 103:20 THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY AND POTENTIAL ACTORS pp. 12 INVOLVED IN THIS INDUSTRY 3:30 CONCLUSION pp. 16
IV. SOCIAL NETWORKS pp. 17
4:10 INTRODUCTION pp. 174:20 WHAT ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS? pp. 174:30 THE MAIN CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL NETWORK RESEARCH pp. 194:40 CONCLUSION pp. 20
V. SUCCESS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS pp. 21
5:10 INTRODUCTION pp. 215:21 SOCIAL CAPITAL pp. 215:22 SOCIAL CAPITAL/SOCIAL NETWORKS AND pp. 22 (CAREER) SUCCESS 5:30 CONCLUSION pp. 23
VI. METHODOLOGY pp. 24
6:10 THE ROAD TO ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTION pp. 246:20 THE 8-STEP BLUEPRINT TO THEORY DISCOVERY pp. 246:30 NARRATIVE ANALYSIS pp. 276:40 THE CODING PROCESS pp. 28
VII. RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS pp. 30
7:10 BAND pp. 307:11 BAND ORIGINATION pp. 307:12 CURRENT FORMATION OF THE BAND pp. 327:13 GOAL OF THE BAND pp. 337:14 BAND IDENTITY AND BAND IMAGE pp. 357:15 STRENGTHS OF THE BAND pp. 367:16 POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR THE BAND pp. 387:20 VIEW ON THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY pp. 397:30 CAREER SUCCESS pp. 427:31 VIEW ON CAREERS pp. 427:32 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE SUCCESS pp. 447:33 VIEW ON CAREER SUCCESS pp. 487:40 SOCIAL NETWORKS pp. 50
VIII. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION pp. 57
8:10 HOW TO CONCLUDE pp. 578:20 THE ARTISTS’ CONTEXT pp. 578:30 THE CAREER CONCEPT pp. 598:40 CAREER SUCCESS pp. 608:50 THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN ACHIEVING pp. 62 SUBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS 8:60 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH pp. 658:70 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS pp. 67 8:80 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS pp. 69
IX. REFERENCES pp. 71
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE pp. 78
APPENDIX B: THE CODING “ROUNDS” pp. 80
APPENDIX C: DUTCH STORY EXTRACTS pp. 85
APPENDIX D: SOCIAL NETWORK DRAWINGS pp. 95
I. INTRO 1:01For many people, music artists are “living the dream”. They are able to turn their creativity into
products (e.g. songs) and services (e.g. live performances), which can attract a large fan base,
resulting in high revenues. However, this ideal picture seems only applicable for the few that reside
“at the top”. Some artists try everything they can, but are barely able to make a living out of their
musical activities, while others do not even break even and are forced to terminate. Why is it that
some artists make it to the top and reside in fame and fortune, while others barely manage to sustain
their activities?
To start investigating the artist as a unique service professional, it is important to look at what the
concept of “success” means in this case. Firstly, for this thesis, the concept “artist” refers to a
contemporary creative role that includes three legally distinct activities: composition, production
and performance of music (Kretschmer, 2005) in the Dutch music industry. Secondly, all music-
related products and services can be seen as hedonic consumption, which refers to “elements of
consumer behavior that relate to the emotive, fantasy and multisensory aspects of the experience of
product usage.” (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982, pp. 92) This implies that all music-related products
and services focus on the consumer’s experience. As a result, it is impossible to rationally define the
“best” artist, as each individual has a subjective preference towards artists. Consequently, it is not
possible to state the artists at the top are the best, as this is just a matter of taste, but one might say
those artists are the most successful by objective indicators (e.g. the number of albums sold).
However, success can also be viewed from a more subjective perspective, as it can be linked to
certain personal goals that have been set out. For example, if an artist has a (personal) goal, which is
to be able to make a living out of his/her music activities and he or she has reached that goal, the
artist might say he or she is successful. Although a distinction can be made between objective and
subjective career success (Arthur, Khapova and Wilderom, 2005), little is known about career
success from the perspective of the music artist, while this is particularly interesting as “the arts can
be seen as forerunners in the trend towards increasingly flexible labour markets.” (Zwaan, ter Bogt
and Raaijmakers, 2010, pp. 11). Therefore, this thesis aims to identify how artists perceive their
career and career success in order to discover how success is perceived in the flexible career setting.
Next to the view on career success by artists, this thesis tries to discover whether the “roads” that
these artists have taken in their career play a role in the attempt to fulfill their success. Due to the
hedonic nature of music, it is only possible to discover how artists move through their “career”, as it
is impossible to connect concepts as age, talent or experience to success in this specific context. The
“roads” that have been taken will be discovered by introducing social networks and the creation of
social network drawings by the artists themselves. Social network literature consists of an extensive
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body of work providing a basis for what networks are and how these networks can be applied in
practice (Burt, 1992; Kilduff and Tsai, 2003). As a result, the social networks drawings by the artists
will show how artists perceive their networks. Theory on social networks will explain, amongst
others, the scientific equivalents of one-way roads, unpaved roads, highways and the road map.
As can be seen in practice, it is not the case that when an artist releases the work, it will
immediately attract many customers. In reality, the stakes are high: a substantial amount of money
needs to be invested in equipment, recording, producing, mixing, mastering, marketing, touring,
distribution and so on. The hedonic nature of music results in no certainty of recoupment of these
investments. In order to provide some understanding of this rapidly changing industry, this thesis
will present an introduction to the music industry in general. Furthermore, a brief overview of the
Dutch music industry and parties that are likely to be involved in this industry will be discussed in
order to provide some general understanding of the environment in which the artists operate.
As a result, this thesis will try to identify how music artists look at success and what the role of
social networks is with regard to this success. By doing so, scientific contributions can be made to
career success theory, which is characterized by multiple conceptializations (e.g. the protean career
(Hall, 1996), the enterprising-self (Storey, Salaman and Platman, 2005) and the boundaryless
career (Arthur et al., 2005)), which all discuss the change of the labor market from “traditional”
linear careers in one organization towards careers where employees themselves are increasingly
responsible for their own development. Research on career success of creative professions is scarce,
while studies on career trajectories of Dutch pop musicians (Zwaan, ter Bogt and Raaijmakers,
2009; Zwaan et al., 2010) only focus on objective success (by means of performance and airplay
frequency). As a result, discovering how artists perceive their careers and their career success is
particularly interesting, as it already provides explorative insight on how individuals perceive the
aforementioned direction in which the overall labor market is heading. Furthermore, this thesis will
be able to show how the career concept is perceived outside of a corporate setting. Additionally,
there is no scientific literature, let alone regular publications that discuss the Dutch music industry,
so this thesis can at least provide background information of the industry that might be useful for
the scientific world. In contrast to these “novel” fields, theory on social networks can be considered
“mature” (Edmondson and McManus, 2007). Still, theoretical contributions can be made to this
field, as little is known about the social networks of music artists, while a qualitative approach to
social networks has been requested by reseachers as this is not common in social network research
due to the generally quantitative nature of this field (Jack, 2005).
Outside of the scientific domain, this thesis will be able to provide useful information for (aspiring)
artists and any other person within, or in some way linked to, the music industry. Although it is not
the goal or even possible to provide a roadmap to success for artists, valuable information can be
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derived from the different lenses through which artists look at success. Furthermore, the presented
stories and social network drawings by the artists are likely to be of practical value, as it shows
insight of the music industry and the positioning of the artists within this industry. Various Internet
forums and websites for people within the industry, such as EHBPO and OngekendTalent provide
useful practical stories and approaches written by artists or people within the field, but this material
generally lacks a methodological approach. As a result, the outcomes of this thesis might be useful
for professionals or, generally, anyone who is interested in the music industry.
As a result, paragraph 1:10 - 1:30 will present the research question, sub-questions and the set list
(figure 1), which provides a visual overview of this thesis.
1:10 RESEARCH QUESTION: How do music artists view career success and do social
networks play a role in achieving this success?
1:20 SUB-QUESTIONS
• What is (objective and subjective) success?• What are predictors of (objective and subjective) success?• What does the Dutch music industry look like?• What are social networks and how can they be displayed?• What are existing relationships in literature between career success and social networks?
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1:30 SET LIST
Figure 1: The “set list”.
II. CAREER SUCCESS 2:04
2:10 INTRODUCTION
Although the general image of the music artist is one that is covered in fame, stardom, richness and
an extraordinary lifestyle, this usually is far from the truth. As the introduction of this thesis has
shown, only few artists make it to the top, leaving many others struggling to sustain. So what does it
mean when someone is successful? For one person, success might mean, “making a lot of money”,
while another might see success as “fulfilling his or her potential” or even “making other people
jealous”. The whole concept of success seems so straightforward that it is difficult to define success
on itself. This is mainly because people view success differently, as can be seen from these
examples. Can success simply be regarded as the completion of anything that is intended or is it
simply just not failing? As a starting point in the search for what success is, the definition provided
by the Oxford Dictionary will be used: “The prosperous achievement of something attempted; the
attainment of an object according to one's desire: now often with particular reference to the
attainment of wealth or position.” (OUP, 1989) Success in this case can be either a consequence or a
favorable outcome (Gunz and Heslin, 2005). However, the issue here is how people decide when a
specific outcome is seen as prosperous. Success as a good outcome for some people can be seen as
failure (the antonym of success) for others (Gunz and Heslin, 2005).
The wide variety of different views and the aforementioned definition of success result in the need
for more specification of the context in which success is discussed here. In the case of the definition
of the Oxford dictionary, it can be seen that anything can be considered as success as long as it
fulfills some kind of aim. This thesis will focus on career success of artists. Therefore, this chapter
will start by discussing careers and will zoom in on a particularly relevant career concept for artists:
the protean career. Furthermore, career success and potential theoretical indicators of career success
will be presented.
2:20 CAREERSThe word “career” has been derived from the Latin word “carerra”, which basically means a
(carriage) road (Heredia, 2007). This road was eventually described as “a person’s course or
progress through life (or a distinct portion of life).” (Gunz and Heslin, 2005, pp. 106) Thus, in the
most general form, the career of the artist can be seen as his or her progress through life.
Arthur et al. (2005, pp. 177) define the career as the “unfolding sequence of a person’s work
experiences over time”. Here, the focus lies on time instead of work arrangements, thereby relating
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to the career setting of the artist. But is a career a story of all “things” that have been done by and
happened to the artist or is it a map of all the institutions and organizations that have been
encountered while traveling “the road”? The answer is that there is no uniform way of discussing a
career. Still, careers can be described in a subjective and objective manner.
The subjective career deals with the person’s own sense of the career and what it is becoming, while
the objective career reflects positions, status and situations as some kind of measurement for the
movement of the person through the social setting (Arthur et al., 2005). This implies that the
objective career can be directly observed, measured and verified by a third party (e.g. albums and
gigs), while the subjective career is only experienced by the person that is engaged in the career
(e.g. progression in songwriting) (Heslin, 2005).
For artists, it seems clear that their career does not consist of some kind of lifetime employment in
an organization where they climb up a hierarchical corporate ladder. But what type of career do they
have? And what does this imply for the artist? The next paragraph will present the protean career
(Hall, 1996), which seems to resemble the career of the artist.
2:30 THE PROTEAN CAREERThe idea behind the protean career is that the traditional contract, in which employees exchange
loyalty and commitment for rewards and job security, has changed to a contract that is based on
identity change and continuous learning. Central to this type of career is “the path with a heart”,
which indicates the person-focused nature of this career concept (Hall, 1996).
The term protean has been derived from Proteus, a Greek god who could change his shape
whenever he wanted. As a result, protean refers to being capable of assuming many forms. This
flexibility can be seen in the protean career, as this person-driven career can be reinvented as both
person and environment change. Therefore, self-awareness and personal responsibility are required
in order to pursue a protean career, as it is the person rather than the organization that shapes and
develops the career. As a result, the relationship between employee and employer changes to a
purely task-focused relationship. This focus on tasks requires the person to develop self-knowledge
and adaptability in order to enable continuous learning, which is needed for career development.
According to Hall (1996) learning can be typologized by time span (short or long term) and what it
is about (task or personal learning), which results in four consequences of learning that are
necessary in the protean career.
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In figure 2, it can be seen that short-term task learning and short term self-learning involves learning
about, respectively, one’s performance and personal attitudes. These types of learning are important
as they influence the current work experiences, but the real facilitators of continuous learning are
long-term task learning and long-term self-learning. In order to learn how to improve task
performance over a long time, it is required to learn how to adapt to task conditions that change
over time. Long-term self learning is equally important, as this implies learning about one’s identity
and how one constructs views of reality. So, continuous learning implies that the person
continuously learns how to adapt to changed task conditions, while forming new images of the self
as these changes occur. For artists, continuous learning in their career is crucial for the development
of self-knowledge and their ability to adapt in order to develop their own career path.
An example of continuous learning by artists leading to career path development can be seen in the
Dutch alternative rock band ‘De Staat’. After the release of his well-anticipated debut album Wait
for Evolution, frontman Torre Florim formed a band and started touring. Florim, “I always like
bands that emphasize the things that make them unique and last year I really heard people saying,
“You guys sound like a machine sometimes.”, and I thought it would be cool to emphasize that
(EPK, 2011).” This focus on “machinery” became the long-term self object of learning for the band.
In other words, “machinery” is the image of the band (and the title of the album), which is to be
developed and extended. All the other cells in the four cell learning matrix eventually lead to the
development and extension of the identity of De Staat.
“Improving performance” has been evident after Torre Florim discovered the band made his own
compositions sound better. “And when we started to play the stuff live, it really got better because
of this band, you know. Every guy in the band had his own style and the fun thing is, you know,
when I wrote a song, if you push that through ‘De Staat machine’ it tends to get better and better
(EPK, 2011).” On the long term this leads to “improving adaptability”. Florim, “The first record I
made completely by myself. […] The only thing to do is to make the second record with the whole
band. Most of the [recording of the songs] songs we did live, five at the same time, because that is
exactly the magic of ‘De Staat’, I think (EPK, 2011).” This shows the adaptability in order to fit the
“machine” image of the second album. An example of changing attitudes can be seen in the band’s
appearance, as displayed in figure 3. The band’s appearance changed from an alternative rock band
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Figure 2: The four-cell learning matrix (adapted from Hall, 1996).
style to industrial age workmen. The machine in the background is actually producing a drum beat
during live performances to fit with the appearance and attitude of the band.
Figure 3: Change of appearance of De Staat in order to match appearance and attitude to identity.
2:40 CAREER SUCCESSAlong the career path, the career experiences of the artist are accumulated, which may lead to
career success, which is defined as “the accomplishment of desirable work-related outcomes at any
point in a person’s work experiences over time.” (Arthur et al., 2005, pp. 179) Here, it can be seen
this definition matches the definition of success of the Oxford dictionary as well as the definition of
the career by Arthur et al. (2005), as it relates to the accomplishment of something that is desired in
the work context, while taking the work experiences over time into account.
Just like careers, career success can be defined in a subjective as well as an objective manner.
Subjective career success can be defined as “the individual’s internal apprehension and evaluation
of his or her career, across any dimensions that are important to that individual (Arthur et al., 2005,
pp. 179). This definition indicates this type of success is something that is personally desirable, as
people have different aspirations with regard to their career and, subsequently, value career-related
factors (e.g. income and job security) in different ways. It can be possible that people sharing the
same social and employment circumstances have an overlap in career aspirations, but this does not
necessarily have to be so. On the contrary, objective career success is defined as an “external
perspective that delineates more or less tangible indicators of an individual’s career situation”.
(Arthur et al., 2005, pp. 179)
Such tangible indicators can be income, job level and occupation. Similarly to the distinction
between objective and subjective careers, the difference between objective career success and
subjective career success is that the first relates to some shared social understanding, while the latter
distinctively deals with individual understanding. However, it is likely that career success involves
both subjective as well as objective aspects. Furthermore, these two types of career success are
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related to each other in the sense that objective success might lead to subjective success and the
other way around (Arthur et al., 2005).
2:41 OBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS INDICATORS
According to Heslin (2005), the most widely used (traditional) indicators of objective career
success are salary, salary growth and promotions. This is mainly because these indicators are
efficient to collect, standardized and available from existing records. However, lately, the focus on
promotions has decreased as a result of organizational changes, such as downsizing, delayering and
outsourcing. The risk of using objective criteria of career success is that they can be contaminated
as well as deficient. Contamination refers to situations in which the objective criteria are affected by
factors that are beyond the control of the individual, such as pay norms, labor conditions and
competition. Deficiency refers to the risk that the indicators of objective career success do not
capture the relevant facets of the focal construct (Heslin, 2005). Traditional criteria, such as pay and
promotions, are not the only objective outcomes that are being sought by people in their careers.
Teachers might indicate their career success on hard data regarding the attainments of their students,
taxi drivers can base their career success on the years of driving without an accident and doctors can
base their career success on the number of lives they have saved. Artists might indicate their success
by the number of albums released or the amount of gigs played. All these examples do not
necessarily lead to an increase in traditional criteria such as pay or rank, but they are valuable as
objective indicators of career success (Heslin, 2005).
2:42 SUBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS INDICATORS
The question remains whether people with hierarchical and financial success are also satisfied with
their career. Contrary to objective success criteria, subjective measures can lead to the detection of
career outcomes that are not readily assessable from raters or personnel records (Heslin, 2005).
According to Heslin (2005) subjective career success is usually operationalized as job or career
satisfaction. The argument here is that individuals who are dissatisfied about many job aspects do
not consider their careers to be successful. However, persons who believe their careers are
successful do not necessarily have to consider it less successful when they start a dissatisfactory
job. Additionally, people with a satisfying job do not necessarily have to consider their career as
successful (Heslin, 2005). Therefore, job satisfaction may contribute to subjective career success,
but they are distinct constructs that do not necessarily have to be related.
Sturges (1999) has investigated how managers defined career success for themselves. Firstly,
accomplishment, being (extremely) good at the work, has been identified as an important indicator
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of career success. Secondly, getting personal achievement from the work is important for career
success. Thirdly, related to job or career satisfaction, is enjoyment, which in this case refers to
experiencing work as interesting and enjoyable. Fourthly, integrity, deals with the feeling that what
one does is worthwhile. Fifthly, balance indicates the ability to combine a successful work life with
a successful home life, while regarding this as career success (Sturges, 1999).
All these indicators can be seen as self-referent criteria, as they reflect on the aspects that are
viewed as important by a specific person. However, Heslin (2003) argues other-referent criteria are
important determinants for subjective career success as well. This implies that people compare the
outcomes of others with their own outcomes, which can be used as determinants for subjective
career success (Heslin, 2003).
2:50 CONCLUSION This chapter has presented the current theoretical debate on career success. Both objective and
subjective success as well as the predictors of these types of success have been presented. The
difference between objective success and subjective success is that the first focuses on some kind of
“objective” measurement for the person that is moving through the social setting, while the latter
deals with the person’s own perception on his career (Arthur et al., 2005). This personal perception
determines what success is for that specific person. The indicators mentioned at the end of this
chapter try to give a general idea of potential factors that individuals personally see as “success”.
However, it is not possible to argue these indicators are predictors of subjective success, as this is
person-dependent. Objective success indicators, on the other hand, can be (objective) success
predictors, as these indicators can be measured in a relatively objective manner, thereby making
predictions based on this data possible. Initially, from a traditional perspective, one would not
directly connect these concepts to the “career” of an artist. However, this chapter has shown that the
concept of the protean career closely resembles the career of the artist, which is all about the
continuous self-development of personal skills, relations, songs, shows and products. As a result,
the protean career focuses on the continuous change and learning for which the individual is
responsible in order to develop his or her identity. This is relevant for music artists, as their careers
seem to be characterized by self-responsibility with regard to career development (Zwaan et al.,
2010). Therefore, it seems the two central parts of the protean career, continuous learning and
identity change, are paramount to the survival of the artist in the music industry. This industry will
be described in chapter III, which will provide a general introduction to the (international) music
industry. Subsequently, the Dutch music industry and relevant actors potentially to be encountered
by music artists in this industry will be presented.
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III. INTERLUDE: THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY 3:10
3:10 INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN GENERALFor most people, the music industry remains one big mystery. For the music industry, the music
industry is a big mystery. It is not even clear when this industry started to emerge. When looking at
the commercialization of music as a starting point of the industry, it may have well started at the
end of the 18th century with composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The 19th century was
characterized by the mass publication of sheet music, which often was in the possession of the Tin
Pan Alley publishers, a district in New York. Sheet music, in that time, was the only way of selling
compositions of music.
Major change occurred with the introduction of the gramophone record, which implied that music,
which up until that point always had been a service (as it could only be played by musicians)
became a product. Then, in 1979, Sony released the Walkman. Today, this would not be seen as a
groundbreaking invention, but previous to the Walkman, when one wanted a personalized listening
experience, the only place where you were in control of the music was at home. Mixtapes could be
made and the order of songs could be changed, but at that time, the music rarely left the user’s
home. The Walkman enabled people to take music with them, which was the start of music
beginning to adapt to the lifestyle of the listener. Music became a background to the lives of the
users as opposed to them creating a special space to listen to music. As a result, music returned to
its original purpose, which was being a service. As Todd Rundgren, the so-called new pop
wunderkind (he is a musician and record-producer), likes to say: “It’s doing something for you. You
aren’t a slave to it.” (Rundgren, 2008)
In 1982, compact discs and compact disc players were commercially launched. In the beginning of
the 1990’s, the first tests with on-demand, interactive television were already set up by Time
Warner, as a first large initiative to try to make a service out of music again. After the Time Warner
Full Service Network had passed proof of concept, which indicated it was ready to be tested, the
next step was to gather musical content. Basically, this entailed getting music on the servers of the
Time Warner Full Service Network. Meetings were set up with the six worldwide major record
labels, but each label rejected. Partly this could have been because retail stores (both small and
large) threatened to stop displaying music when it would be available on the servers.
Halfway the 1990’s, the Internet was made available to the public, which was characterized by the
launch of Internet browser Netscape Navigator. That point has been the starting point of the
diminishing importance of being a signed artist. Unsigned bands could post their music online and
anybody was able to download the music, which is a way to get some exposure by using the
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Internet. Todd Rundgren, “This was an evolution. It’s not a revolution. It's an evolutionary concept,
because previous to that the belief was that if you did not eventually get a record deal, you were
externally musically unviable until you got signed to a record label. And suddenly here was all of
the things that a record label would offer you: expanded audience, etcetera, opportunities to gig in
other places.” (Rundgren, 2008)
Then, with the launch of peer-to-peer file sharing system Napster in 1999, the music industry had
their lunch eaten right in front of them. Napster was so ahead of its time that it was possible for
them to exist for a long time without running into any legal problems, as legislation still was vague
with regard to digital distribution of music. Apple’s iTunes was launched in 2001. It was one of the
first programs that allowed users to import their entire music collection to their computers and sync
this with mp3-players. However, the main power of iTunes has been that Apple got record labels to
put their music on the servers of Apple, something they rejected eight years before within the Time
Warner network.
This has led to music being a service in its purest form. As an illustration, if you buy ten copies of a
CD, you have to pay for every single one of them, even though you can only listen to one song on
one of those CDs at a time. The CD you purchase essentially is a license to listen to the music.
However, this was not the general perception on music at the time of the launch of iTunes. At this
time, the exchange of music via peer-to-peer networks skyrocketed, which resulted in copyright
organizations suing their own customers and record labels trying to make up for what they saw (and
see) as “lost income” (Rundgren, 2008).
So what’s the business model for the music industry? According to Todd Rundgren, “It is the cable
television industry. Everyone probably has a cable account. Nobody keeps track of what you watch
anymore. You can watch hundreds of hours of television a month if you have the time. You could go
on vacation and watch no television for a month, but you would not cancel your cable bill just
because you went on vacation. You would continue to pay. It is this guaranteed income to the cable
television industry. That's why they continue to come up with great programming, like, you know,
Deadwood and Dexter. It's because so many people have signed up for cable. Why doesn't the
music industry adopt this model? People are still buying songs 99 cents a pop. Here's the problem.
Music is never worth exactly 99 cents a song. There are hundreds of thousands of songs that are
worthless and there are hundreds of thousands of songs that are priceless. So if I was to sit to those
four major labels [EMI, Sony/BMG, Warner and Universal], I would say, ‘Why don't you tell Steve
Jobs where to go. Why don't you set up your own servers. Get together and figure out a subscription
model so that every single one of us can pay ten bucks a month. Not because you tacking onto our
11
internet bill, but because we like music and we're willing to pay ten bucks a month to listen to
anything, anywhere, anytime.’ Music is a service. It is not a product.”
The “cable subscription model” has been introduced just a month after Rundgren’s speech at The
Entertainment Gathering and is called Spotify, which enables users to listen to all music for $9.99 a
month. Today, Spotify is even commercially threatened by services like GrooveShark, Rdio and
Deezer, which offer essentially the same (unlimited music listening, everywhere, for a fixed prize).
As the introduction of this thesis has shown, an artist is a person fulfilling a contemporary creative
role that includes three legally distinct activities: composition, production and performance of
music (Kretschmer, 2005) in the Dutch music industry. However, in order to make sense of this
study’s interviews with the artists, it is important to further explore the Dutch music industry and
the position of the artist within this context. Therefore, the next section will describe the most
commonly encountered parties in the music industry that can play a role in the career of the artist.
3:20 THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY AND POTENTIAL ACTORS INVOLVED
IN THIS INDUSTRYSo, what does the Dutch music industry look like? In terms of organization, the Dutch music
industry shows similarities to other music industries by being focused on music from both the US
and the UK, while the aforementioned four major labels dominate the market by having a market
share of around 70% (Zwaan et al., 2010). Unfortunately, market research in the Dutch music
industry can only be revealed to the author by monetary means (Zwaan et al., 2010). However,
Sabel (2012) reported Nielssen Soundscan states album sales in the U.S. increased by 3% in 2011
(compared to 2010) due to the increase of digital downloads. However, according to NVPI as
reported by Sabel (2012), the Dutch music industry is likely to show a decline in album sales that is
similar to 2010 (15,6%). Still, the Dutch music industry differs on an important point from its
foreign counterparts. When looking at the extent to which the market structure of the industry is
concentrated and the diversity in music that is in existence, Burnett (1990) has discovered that in
international music industries both concepts influence one another. Thus, whatever change occurs in
terms of market concentration results in change of music diversity and the other way around. On the
contrary, Christianen (1995) discovered this positive mutual influence of market concentration and
music diversity does not occur in the Dutch music industry. Rather, market concentration and music
diversity are negatively related to one another (Christianen, 1995). This might be an indication of
why Zwaan et al. (2010) describe the Dutch music industry as a “sort of natural ‘career ceiling’ ”.
(pp. 18), due to Dutch music artists having a more national career perspective in comparison with
foreign music artists who seem to have a higher amount of international careers. Although no
12
subsequent research has been conducted on this matter, the interviews with the artists will reveal
their vision on the industry, which provides indications of their view on the market concentration
and music diversity in the Dutch music industry.
One of the characteristics of the music industry is that it is largely invisible for most people, while
the structure of the industry seems complex as a result of the large amount of parties involved.
According to Rutten (1997), the Dutch music industry can be described as all the actors that are
involved in generating added value by the exploitation of music compositions and recordings. The
music industry can be divided in three autonomous, but highly interrelated, sections: the
exploitation of music recordings by audio storage devices, the exploitation of the composition and
recording rights and the organization and exploitation of concerts and music performances (Rutten,
1997). Figure 4 provides a classification of all the relevant actors in these sections.
Figure 4: Relevant actors in the Dutch music industry (Adapted from Rutten, 1997).
For this thesis, the focus will be on the “audio storage devices” and the “concerts and performances” sections of the Dutch music industry, as the “music rights” section is less relevant
nowadays (for most artists) for answering the research question. Concerning the artist’s view on career success, it is likely artists are less concerned about music rights today, as artists earn more
from live performances than they earn from composition and production (Holt, 2010). This is in contrast to the common perception on the music industry that existed (up until) ten years earlier:
“the music industry is not a manufacturing industry, it is a rights industry” (Frith, 2000, pp. 388). It needs to be noted that there are many ways in which artists can maneuver through the music
13
industry, depending on their own choices as well as those of the parties they collaborate with.
However, whatever road taken, there are parties that are highly likely to be encountered as an artist.
Concerning the “audio storage devices” section of Rutten (1997), songs need to be written.
Referring to the artist in this context, the artists themselves are the songwriters, which means that
they are both composers and lyricists. Subsequently, this music needs to be recorded in a studio.
Here, the artist encounters the studio owner and works with a recording team that fulfills the
functions of the producer, the engineer and the mixer. The role of the producer can be narrow or
broad, but the main function of the producer is to oversee and manage the recording process. The
recording engineer is the person who is responsible for the technical part of recording, while the
task of the mixer is to balance volume, content and effects of the tracks recorded. Once the music
has been recorded in the studio, the material needs to be prepared for transfer to data storage
devices. Here, the objective is to ensure the desired sound is evident on all audio storage devices
capable of playing the music. So it is attempted to make the music sound “the same”, irregardless of
the device on which it is being played. This function is fulfilled by the mastering party, of which at
least a mastering engineer is part.
So, the songwriting and recording phase has been completed and now the artist wants to sell the
music. This is where the music publisher comes in, who receives the right to exploit the music of
the artist in exchange for making sure the artist gets paid for any way in which the music is used
commercially. Furthermore, the music publisher aims for ‘syncing’ the artist’s music to other media,
such as commercials and movie soundtracks (Passman, 2009). For physical distribution, the press
manufacturer produces the material on the desired audio storage devices, while the distributor
makes sure the product is available in offline and online retail stores.
Concerning live performances, an important party for the artist is the booking agency, which has as
main task to book shows for the artist. This includes making all the arrangements with the venue
programmer, which is the party responsible for booking artists in a specific music venue. Usually
from the venue side, concert programmers and promoters are responsible for organizing the live
performances, while road crew handles all the technical aspects of the show.
Although this classification provides a useful overview of the Dutch music industry, parties that
indirectly contribute to adding value to the exploitation of music compositions and recordings have
been left out. These include parties who assist the artist in terms of his or her career (artist
managers), the financial aspect of the career (business manager) and the legal aspect of the musical
endeavors (entertainment lawyers). Furthermore, there are important parties for broadcasting the
music, such as the plugger (who connects the artist with radio and television broadcasting stations),
broadcasting stations themselves and music journalists (Passman, 2009).
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In the classification, the role of the record label with regard to all the aforementioned functions has
not been mentioned, as this differs for each contract that has been developed with the artist. Some
labels take over all activities, while others only focus on marketing and distribution. In general, it
can be said that the activities of record labels can entail maintaining contracts with artists and their
managers, conducting the scouting and development of new artists (A&R), and coordinating the
creation, production, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and promotion of the artist’s products
and services (Passman, 2009).
Logically, the consumer is the end party to which all activities are eventually directed. The value
chain of the music industry towards the consumer has been depicted in figure 5, showing various
means through which the artist’s products and services are delivered to the consumer. Attention to
the artist can be realized through traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers and
magazines. Additionally, today’s digital age has resulted in social media providing a wide variety of
promotional tools for artists to interact with the consumer. In case the affective link between the
customer and artists has been established as a result of the customer’s product and/or service
experiences, products can be purchased at offline and online retailers, as well as at the live
performances of the artist. The most direct experience of the artist by the consumer is during live
performances, while the extent to which the consumer wishes to control the music experience of the
artist determines whether the music will be bought or shows will be attended.
Figure 5: “A stylized picture of the music industry.” (Adapted from Dolfsma, 2000).
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3:30 CONCLUSIONThis chapter has sought to provide an overview of what the music industry looks like, specifically
zooming on the Dutch music industry. Central to how any music industry operates, or perhaps
should operate, is what the common view is of the consumer regarding music. Is it a service or a
product? Today, with the enormous popularity of music services such as iTunes and Spotify, both
offering music purely as a service (iTunes Match, 2012), and live performances being the primary
income of artists (Holt, 2010; Schultz, 2009; Kretschmer, 2005), it is inevitable to say that at this
moment, in general, music is seen as a service by the consumer. This has gradually led to the music
industry regarding itself from a rights industry on products (e.g. albums) to a rights industry on
services (e.g. the 360 deal in which artists agree to give a percentage of their total income to
business partners as a result of the decline in album sales). However, these perspectives do not
necessarily comply with the artists’ view on the music industry. According to Frith (2000) music
can also be regarded as an authentic cultural expression (the authenticity in this case is derived from
the origins of a subcultural experience). Supporters from this perspective view the music industry as
an industry of conflict, where music being culture is transformed into music being a commodity
(Frith, 2000).
This chapter has introduced the most common functions within the music industry. These functions
can be performed by distinct parties, while it is also possible for one party to perform multiple
functions. For example, it is possible that a label also includes publishing, PR and a booking
agency. On the other hand, it is also possible that these functions are separate entities. In order to
provide more clarity on how these parties can be displayed in a network drawing by the artists, the
next chapter will present the current state of literature concerning social networks, as social
networks facilitate the description of social structures. It will provide an introduction to what social
networks are and will present the main relevant theoretical concepts with regard to this thesis’
research question.
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IV. SOCIAL NETWORKS 4:17
4:10 INTRODUCTIONIn today’s world, almost any element of life can be seen from the viewpoint of a network.
Transportation can be seen as large networks, as means as roads, airlines and water connect
individuals with one another. Power grids ensure that electricity is delivered to buildings, while the
Internet enables people all over the world to communicate with each other. In biology, topics as
genetics and the ecological system are regarded as networks. Also at the organizational level,
companies, markets and governments are all embedded in networks. However, when people are
asked about networks, social networks still seem to be the first thing they think about. A person with
a large number of friends that can be counted on is said to have a large “network” (Kadushin, 2004).
All these examples indicate that networks can be found everywhere in daily life. However, this is
mainly caused by the broad definition of a network, which can be seen as a “set of items […] with
connections between them.” (Newman, 2003, pp. 168) This chapter will identify what social
networks are and will present the major concepts of social network analysis.
4:20 WHAT ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS?On a night in 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes (a silversmith and a leather maker) were
ordered to warn communities about a threat from the British army (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003). Both
had to ride different routes, but had to spread the same message over the same amount of towns
riding the same amount of miles. One would expect the end results of both men to be (more or less)
equal, but reality was that Revere’s message was picked up quickly throughout the communities,
while Dawe’s message failed. As a result, many towns which were supposed to be warned by
Dawes were not aware of the approach of the British army. The question is how this could have
happened. Gladwell (2000) was able to show that this was due to Revere being connected to an
extensive network consisting of strategic relationships, while Dawe’s connections proved to be less
useful. Furthermore, by focusing on connecting to the key players, town leaders even sent
messengers to alert surrounding areas, making Revere’s network even more effective.
As can be seen from this brief historical example, networks of relationships in which individuals are
embedded have important consequences for the success or failure of their projects (Kilduff and Tsai,
2003). According to Kilduff and Tsai (2003), the networking concept can be seen as one of the
defining paradigms of the modern era. It has enabled researchers to capture the interactions of any
individual within the larger field of activities to which that individual belongs.
17
The start of social network research in the social sciences mainly stems from three developments
(Freeman, 2004). Firstly, in the 1920s, German psychological researchers such as Lewin, Heider
and Morena started to use the network idea for examining social interaction. Secondly, the whole
mathematical analysis of social interaction was adopted in 1956 by researchers working with graph
theory (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003). This mathematical addition has led to the transformation of the
study from description to analysis. Thirdly, several anthropological studies (of which the Hawthorne
studies are the most famous) contributed to the current state of science regarding social networks.
These developments have led to the leading ideas that are evident in today’s social network
research: “an emphasis on relations between actors, a recognition of the embeddedness of exchange
in social relations, a belief in the structural patterning of social life, and an emphasis on the social
utility of network connections.” (Kilduff and Brass, 2010, pp. 5) It can be seen that these ideas
overlap with one another. However, each idea has formed a basis for social network research.
To find out what social networks are, it is important to look at social network analysis. Kilduff and
Brass (2010) have shown throughout the years that social network analysis has continuously
implied studying sets of actors and relations that either connect or separate them. This is related to
the idea of a social network on itself. According to Hanneman and Riddle (2005) the idea of a social
network is very simple. It can be defined as “a set of actors that may have relationships with one
another.” (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005, pp. 2).
More technically, actors are called nodes, while the relations between the actors are defined as ties.
Simply stated, a social network consists of a number of actors that can be connected to one another
by ties. These actors can be individuals or collectivities. Individuals usually refer to persons, while
collectivities refer to groups, firms or even nations (Sasovova, 2010). Ties, on the other hand, can be
established based on several characteristics, such as social relations, interactions, correlations and
flows of information.
Generally, three types of networks can be distinguished: ego-centric networks, socio-centric
networks and open system networks. As its name suggests, an ego-centric network displays network
relationships that are formed around a single individual (Mote, Jordan, Hage and Whitestone,
2007). A well-known example of a ego-centric network is the notion of “six degrees of separation”,
which is the idea that almost anyone in the world can be connected to one another by a chain of
typically six acquaintances (Newman, 2000). In this network, members are defined by their relation
to the primary actor. This approach is considered to be most useful when illustrating the ability of
individuals to utilize networks for gaining resources. As a result, it seems the most feasible
approach for this thesis. The socio-centric network is a network that exists within a closed system,
such as an organization or an industry. Here, studies focus on, for example, the connection between
workers within an organization. On the contrary, open system networks can be seen as networks of
18
which the boundaries are difficult to observe. In general, studies that focus on interorganizational
networks apply this approach (Mote et al., 2007).
4:30 THE MAIN CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL NETWORK RESEARCHAs the title of this section already reveals, this part will discuss major social network research
concepts that are relevant to this thesis. All concepts that will be discussed have been visualized in
figure 6 in order to provide clarification to the reader.
The previous paragraph has shown that a network consists of ties that are established between
actors. One important element of ties is their strength, which has been researched extensively by
Granovetter (1973). Kilduff and Tsai define the strength of a tie as “a combination of the amount of
time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy and the reciprocal services which characterize the
tie.” (Kilduff & Tsai, 2003, pp. 32) Here, a distinction is made between strong and weak ties.
Infrequent and distant relationships are characterized as weak ties, where frequent and long-lasting
relationships, accompanied with affect, are defined as strong ties (Kilduff & Tsai, 2003). The part of
the definition of the strength of ties regarding reciprocity indicates that a tie from actor A to actor B
does not necessarily imply that this is also the other way around. In other words, ties can be
symmetric (reciprocated) or asymmetric (non-reciprocated).
Additionally, networks can consist of multiple ties having multiple characteristics between the
actors. For example, two actors can be colleagues and members of the same sports team. This is
called multiplexity, which can be seen as an indicator of tie strength, as multiple relationships
between actors usually result in increased tie strength (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003).
Balance theory (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003) has been developed in order to show the interpersonal
influence in networks that can occur in the setting of strong ties. The main idea of this theory is that
people prefer relationships that are in balance, resulting from both reciprocity and transitivity.
Reciprocity implies that mutual relationships are preferred. When two persons are befriended (P and
O), but one of them (P) is a friend of another person as well (X), pressure exists for (O) to become
friends with (X) as well. This is called transitivity (Kilduff & Tsai, 2003). Balance theory also
appears to be useful in understanding how ties in a network are being created and maintained at the
inter-organizational level. Research has shown that personal contacts involving friendship are
highly important in the formation of these ties (Kilduff & Tsai, 2003). In this context both
reciprocity and transitivity play a key role as well. Managers call it “a balance, a scale – in return
for commitment on their part we say we are committed to you and we prove it.” (Kilduff & Tsai,
2003, pp. 44) Transitivity occurs at the (inter-)organizational level when one individual (P) has
19
connections with two other individuals (O and X) and acts as a “go-between” for the two
individuals (O and X) in order to establish trustworthiness.
Figure 6: Visualization of the main social network research concepts.
4:40 CONCLUSIONThis chapter has looked at the methods to portray actors and the relation between these actors. From
an ego-centric network perspective, the relationships between an actor and all other actors can be
considered the social network of that specific actor. Paragraph 4:30, discussing the main concepts of
social network research, has presented an overview of current theory and methods for displaying
social networks in social network research. However, some concepts are still subject to theoretical
debate. Tie strength, for example, is very subjective (Krackhardt, 1992). The same tie can be
considered ‘strong’ by one person, while another person considers the tie as ‘weak’. Still, tie
strength can serve as an indication of the intensity of the relationship of the artist and the other
actors in the social network drawing.
Chapter III and IV have presented the theoretical state of career success and social networks. The
next chapter will look into existing relations in the literature between these two concepts, thereby
introducting three types of capital the individual brings to and derives from the social network.
20
V. SUCCESS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS 5:21
5:10 INTRODUCTIONSeperately, (career) success and social networks (in general) have been the subject of numerous
research endeavors. Research discussing both in relation to one another is sparse, but since the end
of the 90’s, research discussing social networks and the relation of this concept to success started to
emerge. The majority of this research focuses on social capital that is being brought into the
network by the actors. Therefore, the next paragraph will introduce this concept and shows how
social capital is related to success and social networks
5:21 SOCIAL CAPITAL
The social capital of a person is seen as the relationships of that individual with other individuals in
a network, while focusing on the resources that can be provided to or gained from other actors or
the network in general (Inkpen and Tsai, 2005). It is “the aggregate of resources embedded within,
available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or
organization.” (Inkpen and Tsai, 2005, pp. 151).
According to Burt (1992), individuals bring three kinds of capital into the so-called competitive
arena: financial capital, human capital and social capital. Financial capital includes lines of credit,
cash at hand, and investments and reserves in the bank. It seems logical that the amount of financial
capital invested leads to increased chances of survival and growth for the artist. Artists with larger
financial resources can invest more money in the development and marketing of their products and
services and have more financial means to cope with failure (Chandler and Hanks, 1999). However,
financial capital is dependent on the ‘human resources’ that invest this capital. According to
Chandler and Hanks (1999) human capital is an important contributor to the success of any
business. Human capital can be seen as the natural abilities of a person: his or her charms,
intelligence, health and looks. These are combined with the skills acquired in education and job
experience in order to obtain the ability to excel in specific tasks. Creativity, judgment and vision
can also be seen as human capital (Carter, Brush, Greene, Gatewood and Hart, 2003). According to
human capital theory, investing in all these human capital attributes will lead to increased work
performance and rewards (Ballout, 2007). It is even stated “career progression and success is
contingent upon the quantity and quality of human assets one brings to the labor market and that the
skills and experiences that individuals bring to their work are related to their
compensation.” (Ballout, 2007, pp. 743) The relation between social, human and financial capital
lies in social capital creating opportunities for applying financial and human capital (Burt, 1992).
21
Thus, through general contacts, friends and colleagues, the artist is able to discover opportunities
for using his or her human and financial capital. Additionally, research by Ellison, Steinfield and
Lampe (2007) has shown social media use (and in particular Facebook use) is positively related to
all three types of capital, especially social capital.
5:22 SOCIAL CAPITAL/SOCIAL NETWORKS AND (CAREER) SUCCESS
In their research, Seibert, Kraimer and Liden (2001) have revealed the importance of social capital
in relation to career success. It is argued the social resources of a person are positively related to
salary and career satisfaction. This is because social resources enable access to information, access
to resources and career sponsorship. As an advice, Seibert et al. (2001) state that individuals should
invest in the development of weak ties, so social resources are increased, and then invest
(selectively) in strengthening those ties from which benefits for the individual can actually be
mobilized.
The “which-network-structure-leads-to-what-outcome” question has been a continuous debate in
social network research. One of the prominent theories in the social network field is Granovetter’s
(1982) strength of weak ties. His argument regarding strong and weak ties is that strong relations
tend to be transitive, as can be seen in balance theory. Because of transitivity, strong ties can be
time-intensive and pressuring to the individual in terms of the aforementioned creation and
maintenance of relations with other actors. Weak ties on the other hand are less time-intensive, less
restraining and are likely to lead to more diverse connections with other actors. Therefore, the
strength of weak ties is that they result in diverse and non-redundant information (Granovetter,
1982).
However, Krackhardt (1992) criticizes Granovetter and the subsequent research stream arguing for
the strength of weak ties, as two issues have been neglected. Firstly, it is unclear what exactly
constitutes a strong and a weak tie. It can be seen that the definition of tie strength by Kilduff and
Tsai (2005) in this thesis depends on the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy and
the reciprocal services. However, it is unclear whether these four indicators count equally for
determining the strength of a specific tie (Krackhardt, 1992). As a result, studies measuring tie
strength do so in different ways. Secondly, the affective character of strong ties has been neglected,
as emotional intensity and intimacy are characteristics that are subjective and interpretive. Besides
this criticism, Krackhardt’s (1992) main argument for the strength of strong ties is that they are
more useful when the individual is positioned in an insecure position, as they result in protection
and the reduction of uncertainty. Furthermore, it is argued that trust is more likely to be evident in
strong ties than in weak ties.
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Another prominent concept in social network research is structural holes theory, which has been
developed by Burt in 1992. Key in this theory is the brokerage position in the network, which
means that the actor is able to connect two otherwise disconnected others. By doing so, the actor is
able to gain non-redundant information, thus, early and efficient access to new information, and
referrals to new contacts (Hulsink, Elfring and Stam, 2009). Furthermore, the information flow can
be controlled by the actor in the brokerage position, which provides that specific individual with the
power to play the other parties off against each other (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003). According to Burt
(2004), behavior and opinions are more likely to be the same within groups than between groups.
As a result, people that are connected across groups are more used to alternative behavior and
thinking. “Brokerage across the structural holes between groups provides a vision of options
otherwise unseen, which is the mechanism by which brokerage becomes social capital.” (Burt,
2004, pp. 349) As a result, actors occupying brokerage positions tend to express more ideas, have
less ideas dismissed and are more likely to have their ideas evaluated as valuable (Burt, 2004).
When relating this to the music industry, pluggers (both radio and TV) occupy brokerage positions,
as they facilitate the connection between two otherwise disconnected others (the artist and the
broadcasting stations). Because of these positions, their ideas and suggestions are regarded as more
valuable in comparison to the situation where artists approach broadcasting stations themselves.
5:30 CONCLUSIONAs can be seen in this chapter, there is no agreement in literature on how social networks should be
optimally configured in order to achieve any type of (career) success. However, this chapter has
introduced key concepts of which it can be said scholars have been agreed upon: social capital,
financial capital and human capital. Especially social capital, including social skills such as reading
other persons accurately and possessing unique interaction skills, seems important for artists, as the
career of the artist in the music industry is dependent on interaction and attention. As a result, the
presented literature provides points of attention for artists to focus on when developing their
network, but these skills, such as reading others, merely serve as potentional contributions to
success. Whether specific social skills and social capital contribute to success is dependent on the
artist’s perspective, which will be presented in the results of the data analysis in chapter VII.
However, in order to analyze the data derived from the interviews and social network drawings of
the artists, the methodological outlay of this thesis needs to be discussed. This will be conducted in
the next chapter.
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VI. METHODOLOGY 6:24
6:10 THE ROAD TO ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONThis chapter will describe the road to answering the research question of this thesis. In other words,
it will cover the methodology of this research, accompanied with explanations on why specific
methodological choices have been made.
Although career success is an area in the scientific world that has had en still is having numerous
scientific endeavors, this thesis is of an explorative nature, becuase of the focus on career success
from the perspective of the artist. As a result, this thesis focuses on the specific view on success and
social networks of the artists themselves. They are the ones who will talk about their view on
success, they will draw the social networks, and they will talk about all the band-related matters that
help to provide understanding of these aforementioned concepts. Therefore, there is no intention to
figure out when or if success leads to some specific outcome. Rather, the aim is to find out what
success means to artists. In other words, to “seek new insights in phenomena, to ask questions and
to assess the phenomena in a new light.” (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009, pp. 592) This will
be supported by relevant scientific literature. The aim towards the artist has been to let them speak
as freely as possible about the research question without them feeling restricted to spread their
opinion. Although this thesis is of an explorative nature, a systematic manner has been used in
which potential ‘new’ theory can be created as a result of the analysis of data. This systematic
approach is called grounded theory, and consists of various techniques and tools in order to create
novel theory. For this thesis, the main method for analysis will be the 8-step blueprint (for grounded
theory) by Eisenhardt (1989b). Additionally, narrative analysis (Daykin, 2005; Boje, 2001 and
Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010) will be applied in order to deconstruct stories that have been told by
the artists. In this way, an attempt is being made to discover how artists narrate about career
success. The following two paragraphs will introduce Eisenhardt’s (1989b) framework and
narrative analysis.
6:20 THE 8-STEP BLUEPRINT TO THEORY DISCOVERYIn her scientifically famous article, Eisenhardt (1989b) has described a process consisting of 8 steps
in order to induct theory by using case studies. This 8-step blueprint has been an inspiration for this
thesis, as the process described in the article provides valuable guidelines for those new to
qualitative research, and more specifically, theory discovery.
The first step is getting started, which implies formulating the research questions and introducing
and explaining a priori constructs. This has been conducted in chapter I. The research question has
24
been created in order to answer how artists look at success and whether social networks play a role
for this specific success. This thesis employs two a priori constructs. Firstly, the definition of the
artist by Kretschmer (2005) is being used, which is “a contemporary creative role that may include
three legally distinct activities: composition, production and performance of sounds (pp. 2)”.
Secondly, the artists need to be active (with)in the Dutch music industry.
The second step deals with the selection of cases. For this thesis, self-selection non-probability
sampling has been used to select respondents for the interviews. This type of sampling means that
potential respondents have been asked to take part and data has been collected from those who
indicated they wanted to participate. Potential respondents included every artist in the Netherlands
fitting Kretschmer’s (2005) definition of the artist. In practice, ten cases have been selected. All
interviewees were male and the average age was around 30 years, with one ‘youngling’ of 21 years
old and one ‘tour monster’ aged 47 years. Eight out of the ten artists that have been interviewed
play in the band on which the interview is focused. The remaining two artists are band managers.
However, these managers employ a less “traditional” managing role, as they take part in the
composition and production roles in the bands they manage. Additionally, except for the performing
part of the definition of the artist, these managers fit the definition of an ‘artist’ by Kretschmer
(2005) that is being used throughout this thesis. These managers are regarded as “additional” band
members, which is (subjectively) reflected in their stories and (objectively) reflected in their pay
(both equal to all the other band members).
The third step consists of crafting instruments and protocols. This thesis focuses on the data that
has been derived from ten in-depth, but semi-structured interviews, of which four have been
conducted by telephone and six have been conducted in person in an informal setting. One of these
four telephone interviews resulted in a follow-up e-mail with the request for more information, as
that specific call yielded an insufficient amount of data. Qualitative data analysis is more difficult by
telephone, but for these specific artists (concerning this thesis it is impossible to mention anything
regarding their “success”) it was impossible for the author to meet them in person, as they simply
did not “have the time” to meet in person. However, note-taking and smartphone software partly
eliminated this problem. Semi-structured interviews imply that open interview questions covering
career success and social networks have been designed beforehand. Additionally, during each
interview there has been room for interesting related questions that popped up while the artists were
narrating. In practice, all interviews covered the questions the author wanted to ask, however,
usually this occurred in a ‘random’ order because of the narrating style of the artists. Some artists
narrate in long stories, which has resulted in their stories covering multiple questions that had been
designed beforehand. The literature that has been discussed in the theory chapters has been used as
a framework for the interviews. The interview guide can be found in Appendix A.
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The fourth step is to enter the field, which in this case refers to conducting the interviews in order to
gather all data. The interviews have been conducted between November 2011 and January 2012.
Each interview has been recorded by both smartphone and laptop. Transcribing the interviews took
place at the Amsterdam Medical Center, as this hospital has all the necessary tools for making the
transcription process go as smooth as possible.
The fifth step deals with data analysis. Digital help for data analysis has been provided by both
Atlas.Ti as well as Preview. In this thesis, a combination of within-case analysis, cross-case analysis
and narrative analysis has been used. Because of the competitive nature of the music industry (and
to meet the precondition of all artists to participate in the interviews), all “sensitive” data has been
anonymized. In order to still provide clarity to the reader, two tags have been created: [word] and
<word>. The first tag displays clarifications to the stories that have been added by the author ex
post, while the second tag is used to cover anything that might compromise the anonymity of the
artist or band (these words will be used interchangeably, as the artists talk from the perspective of
their bands). For example, <band> refers to the name of the band in which the artist is playing,
while “he [drummer]” clarifies that the artist is referring to the drummer of his band. Additionally,
“SN_X” refers to social network X, while “Se_Y” refers to story extract Y. All social network
drawings by the artists can be found in Appendix D. Ebbers and Wijnberg (2009), two Dutch
researchers who have conducted research in the Dutch movie industry, have decided to translate the
Dutch quotes of movie producers into English, because this ensured fit with the rest of their article,
as it was written in English. This thesis goes in that same direction. However, in contrast to Ebbers
and Wijnberg (2009), the original Dutch interview extracts will be provided in Appendix C.
Enfolding literature consists of the comparison of the interview findings with both analog as well as
conflicting literature. In this thesis, this implies that literature will be consulted and compared with
the data from the interviews. Originally in Eisenhardt’s (1989b) framework, this is the seventh step
in the process of building theory. However, for this thesis, data findings will be compared to theory
that has been presented in chapters II - V as well as literature that has been consulted as a result of
the data findings. This will be conducted in chapter VII, which presents the results of the data
analysis of this thesis. Subsequently, these results will be presented in the form of propositions,
which will be displayed in chapter VIII.
The final step, reaching closure, refers to the state of theoretical saturation. This state is reached at
the end of chapter VIII. Although this is the closure point for this thesis, it does not imply that no
further research should be conducted. Rather, this thesis serves as a (small) starting point for future
scientific endeavors in the areas of career success and social networks. This, along with the
limitations, and theoretical and practical implications of this thesis, will be discussed in chapter
VIII. The subsequent paragraph will introduce narrative analysis and its application in this thesis.
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6:30 NARRATIVE ANALYSISNarrative analysis (NA) might sound vague and complex, but in the most brief form of explanation,
it entails the analysis of narrations, or stories, by persons. This type of analysis does not focus on
what is being told (this is what is being analyzed by the adaptation of Eisenhardt’s (1989b)
framework) in a social interact between humans, but how this is being told. According to van Eeten,
van Twist and van Kalders (1996), stories are one of the basic methods used by humans in which
facts and events are organized in a particular manner in order to make sense. As a result, Peverelli
and Verduyn (2010) argue stories can (potentially) make sense, as they belong to actors. According
to Boje (2001) there are two steps that eventually lead to a narrative: the antenarrative and the
story. The antenarrative is a story that is not yet in existence, which practically implies it is
fragmented, incoherent and non-lineair. It is the so-called lived experience of the actor (Peverelli
and Verduyn, 2010). A story can be seen as a ‘summary’ of facts, events and incidents as they have
occurred. A narrative can be compared to a studio recording (in contrast to a live recording) by an
artist; the events have been plotted and sequenced, which results in tighter coherence. As a result,
NA in this thesis is formed around stories and narratives. However, these two concepts will be
referred to as stories, as it is impossible to scientifically prove whether a “story” that is being told
by an artist is a story or a narrative.
For this thesis, theoretically founded NA will be present in the analysis of causal connections,
themes and chronology in stories as these elements form the central storyline (Boje, 2001; Peverelli
and Verduyn, 2010). Furthermore, archetypal storylines will be discovered. Additionally, inspiration
has been derived from a study showing similarities to this thesis. Daykin (2005) has interviewed 10
music artists in the UK in a study that “explores notions of creativity, health and risk, drawing on
interviews with freelance musicians in the UK.” (Daykin, 2005, pp. 67) This study applies NA to
investigate health disruptions that affect creative work. According to Daykin, “in NA stories are
more than personal and there is a concern to identify narrative elements that are meaningful in the
context of a shared cultural repetoire.” (Daykin, 2005, pp. 72). Although Riessman (1993) argues
the presentation of data extracts (or, ‘story extracts’, as they are called in this thesis) can be
‘fracturing’ due to the sequence and context of stories, it is impossible for this thesis to present and
analyze complete stories. Rather, narrative analysis (both theoretically founded as well as from a
practical viewpoint) is used to discover how artists narrate in the story extracts that have been
presented in chapter VII.
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6:40 THE CODING PROCESSNow that the methodological outlay of this thesis has been discussed, chapter VII will present the
results of the data analysis. This paragraph will present a brief overview of the coding process that
has led to the final set of codes that has been used in the subsequent chapter.
Coding can be conducted in an open or a closed manner. Open coding implies that the codes pop up
while working with the interviews, while closed coding means that codes have been designed
beforehand by the researcher (Saunders, Thornhill and Lewis, 2009). This thesis employs a
combination of open and closed codes, as a result of the use of semi-structured interviews.
Questions that have been designed around specific themes (e.g. band formation and the foundation
of the band) have been coded beforehand, as these codes relate to questions that are present in all
interviews. Other codes did “pop up” while working with the interviews. The coding process has
been depicted in Appendix C. As can be seen in the titles, this process has been divided in four so-
called “rounds” in order to make the major changes in the coding process visible to the reader. In
practice, coding interviews is process on a continuous basis that is impossible to document, as a
result of the constant edits to the codes and the ideas and motivations behind the codes.
The “first round” consisted of a long list of Dutch codes of which the author believed they would be
potentially relevant. That list has been refined by editing codes that showed overlap with one
another. Subsequently, this list has been translated to English in order to ensure lingual consistency
with the rest of the thesis.
The “second round” has been centered around codes that are related to success, social networks and
the band in which the artist is playing. One code, band data, has been created in order to gather all
potentially interesting band or artist statistics. Additionally, this “round” consisted of a code called
“key figure to subjective success”, which gathered stories concerning “key actors” to career success.
The “third round” consisted of many refinements in the codes in order to prevent that codes would
overlap one another. Additionally, codes that had only been derived from few interview transcripts
and codes of which the author believed that they were not relevant for answering the reseach
question, have been removed.
The “fourth round” displays the “final set of draft codes”. At this point, main discoveries with
regard to answering the research question had been made and a substantial amount of either analog
or conficting literature had been found. However, close to the saturation point of this thesis, “small”
discoveries and changes led to the “final set of codes”, which has been displayed in figure 7.
Chapter VII will consist of the structure that has been presented in this figure.
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Figure 7: The final set of codes.
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VII. RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS 7:30
7:10 BANDIn order to answer the research question, it is necessary to have understanding about the context in
which the artists’ bands operate. This is based on the stories of the artists concerning the current
band in which they play. The stories describe how the band got together, what the current formation
of the band is, how the band looks at identity and/or image, the strengths of the band and points for
improvement. Multiple extracts from these stories have been displayed in this section.
7.11 BAND ORIGINATION
This code deals with the stories of the artists with regard to “how the band got together in the first
place”. In all interviews, this first band formation has been derived from environments that are close
to the music artist’s life. The following two story extracts show two artists narrating about how their
bands have originated.
Story Extract 1 - (Social Network G) “[…] I wanted something new and I studied at Rockacademie and over there, they like it when you write Dutch songs. And that’s how I planned on writing all the songs. In the early stages, I was writing while being in my previous band, with the drummer. <previous band’s> drummer and the bass player who lives in my neighborhood. And, <a musician> of the Rockacademie, I used to play acoustic songs with him, so we had to try and play around with that. So, in the end the plan was to go record. We were with the four of us. That was at the time when <previous band> split up. There was more time to spend on the band and because of the contacts of <previous band>, there was a possibility to get signed at <record label>. That’s where we recorded the album.”
Story Extract 2 - (Social Network H) “[…] The band has been founded because of two guys who knew each other. They decided to look for additional band members. On the rock academy, or what’s the name? You cannot call it a rock academy yet. It’s the pop academy in Rotterdam. […] So they met each other there and started touring France.”
Story extract 1 displays a causal connection with regard to band origination (Boje, 2001). As
Peverelli and Verduyn (2010) state, whether there is a causal connection depends on the claim “of
what automatically leads to something else”. In this case, “and that’s how”, connects “wanting
something new and studying at Rockacademy” to “why the artist started writing Dutch songs”. As a
result, this can be considered a narrative, as it eleminates the call for interpretation (Peverelli and
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Verduyn, 2010). Story extract 2 shows clear chronology in the displayed story. There have been two
guys who have been already connected prior to the start of the band. Subsequently, they started the
search for additional members and then they started to tour France.
As story extract 1 and 2 show, these two bands have had part of their roots in “rock academy”.
Other bands originated as all band members went to the same conservatory. In terms of physical
distance, at the time of the origination of the band, most bands (8/10) have been formed out of band
members that lived in the same town or same area within the Netherlands. Some (3) bands
originated out of previous bands, while, interestingly, one band has its roots in church. However,
these environments in which the artists’ bands originated have not been drawn by the artists in their
social networks. According to Wong, Pattison and Robins, homophily, or as they describe “birds of
a feather flock together (2005, pp. 100)”, has been discussed in many studies. “While we clearly
tend to befriend those who are like us, there are many situations where having a lot of friends like
us is simply because we are stuck with people who are like us in the first place. For example, if you
are a millionaire and all your friends are millionaires, it might simply be because you were born
into an elite family and live in an elite area so you only know millionaires in your life, even though
you do not actively choose to befriend millionaires over non-millionaires (2005, pp. 100).” As a
result, it is useful to make a distinction between baseline homophily and inbreeding homophily
(McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Cook, 2001). When there is a limited (potential) tie pool in the social
network of the individual due to demography and activities, one speaks of baseline homophily,
while inbreeding homophily is regarded as any other kind of homophily (Wong et al., 2005). In the
case of the story extracts above (Se_1, SN_G; Se_2, SN_H), baseline homophily can be seen in all
artists “gathering” band members in environments that are close to themselves.
Subsequently, in this phase of the band “career”, artists either decided to get their band signed at a
record label or decided to conduct band activitities themselves. According to Bockstedt, Kauffman
and Riggins (2005), the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach has been the result of new digital recording
and distribution technologies. Before these technologies existed, artists depended on record labels
in order to access production and distribution capabilities. As Bockstedt et al. (2005) state, “with
digital technologies and the Internet, artists can produce, record and distribute music without help
from record labels (pp. 6)”. Following this description of the DIY artist, some artists can be
regarded DIY (SN_A, SN_C, SN_H, SN_I) and some can be regarded as “label artists” (SN_F and
SN_J). However, artists that are not dependent on a record label, but who do outsource certain tasks
to a label are still regarded DIY. Additionally, depending on the roads taken by bands, it is also
possible for artists to move from a label to DIY (e.g. SN_G and SN_D) over time.
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7:12 CURRENT FORMATION OF THE BAND
Like a sports team, a band can play in several formations. For this thesis, it is relevant to find out
whether the bands have changed their formation, as it helps to provide insight of the career
trajectories of artists. Six bands decided to replace one or multiple band members. According to
these music artists, this happened due to two related reasons: band members had different personal
plans or there was a difference in opinion on the band’s future.
Story Extract 3 - (Social Network G) “[…] So we went with the four of us to go record and at the end of 2009, the drummer of the band was ill, and also not motivated. And then <booking agent> of <booking agency> went mad, the contract was not finalized yet, and he told me: “I don’t want to work with this guy anymore.” And, uh, well, we, during the conflicts he [the drummer] had with him [booking agent], you know, and it also had to do with how he [the drummer] dealt with everything and stuff. I thought to myself, this is what I’ve been working for for the last four years. And then we found a new drummer.”
Interestingly, this specific story can be regarded as ‘reversed’ transitivity (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003).
In this story, it can be seen that there is a connection between the artist and the booking agent.
Pressure existed from the booking agent to discontinue the relation between the artist and the
drummer in this context, which the artist did. Additionally, the story shows similarities with the
romantic plot (Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010), in which the actor in the story overcomes obstacles in
order to get to the object of his/her affection. “I thought to myself, this is what I’ve been working
for for the last four years. And then we found a new drummer.” By using such a romantic plot, the
artist tries to clarify his explanation of why the decision was made to replace the drummer in this
band. Story extract 4 shows a story discussing why a band member of the artist of social network I
left the band.
Story Extract 4 - (Social Network I) “[...] He just had different ambitions. […] He had a life at home as well, with his girl, really settling, you know? He already had his own house for a while, but at a certain point his girlfriend just couldn’t take it anymore. He has chosen for that live instead of the rock ‘n roll life. I would have chosen the rock life, ah, well.”
This story shows similarities to the tragedy plot (Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010) when looking from
the perspective of the artist that has been interviewed. In this type of plot, the person in the story
does not survive. Based on the end of story extract 4, it seems that the artist would not have made
the same decision. However, he explains it by saying, “He just had different ambitions.”
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Story Extract 5 - (Social Network A) “[…] There was a really bad drummer. That didn’t work at all. And then they decided to continue without the drummer [...] Unfortunately, it was too much for the guitarist, so to say. His brother was the bass player. He also quit. Partly because of playing a lot. We’ve played almost 100 shows, actually, even more. […] I just saw it, fatigue.”
According to Zaza, Charles and Muszynski (1998), pain and incapacity, as shown in story extract 5,
can be devastating to the identity of the artist. This might be because of a mismatch between the
view on musical and creative activities between the artist in this case and the other artists in his
band. Daykin (2005) suggests artists see their activities as expressions of self instead of forms of
work, while the artist in this case is managing and co-writing for the band. As a result, it is likely
that a mismatch between the view of the artist and the manager occurred. Furthermore, bands that
carry the name of a “band leader” perform with changing formations. Some bands did not change
formation. However, this might be due to their relatively young age (approximately two years).
7:13 GOAL OF THE BAND
One of the most important questions for an organization is where it wants to go. In order to get to
that specific point of desire, organizational goals need to be set out. Here, goals are regarded as the
desired state of specific affairs that the organization is trying to reach (Etzioni, 1964) According to
Latham and Locke (2002), goal setting means setting objectives, in the ideal situation those that are
specific, measurable and time-targeted. Given the context of the music artist, goal-setting seems
more difficult for artists than it is for an organization in a ‘regular’ corporate setting. Still, due to the
artist’s self-responsibility on career development (Hall, 1996), it seems likely artists do set out
goals. This is the case for DIY artists, as these artists have indicated goal setting is an important
element for their bands (e.g. SN_I, SN_H, SN_A). One band made a personal goal-setting plan, as
can be seen in the following story extract.
Story Extract 6 - (Social Network I) “[…] In 2008, we made a plan with <drummer>, some kind of two-year-plan, we just said, everyone for himself what we wanted to achieve within a year, and we reached that in half a year, you know.”
Greenhouse, Callanan and Kaplan (1995) state career goal setting (story extract 6) is both beneficial
for employees and the organizations they work for. Career goals show the employee has a clear
picture of his or her future, while the provision of targets guide the employee in fulfilling important
needs (Greenhouse et al., 1995). Additionally, Jamal (1984) states when clear goals are in place, it is
less likely for stress to emerge, under the condition that the employee is willing to commit to these
goals. Furthermore, the self-development concept of the protean career (Hall, 1996) is evident in
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this story extract, as each individual in this band making his own plan results in a task-based
relationship between “employee” and “organization”. Additionally, development is based on the
goals that the individual, instead of the organization, has set out. There are more DIY bands in
which goal setting is evident, as can be seen in story extract 7.
Story Extract 7 - (Social Network H) “[…] Make sure you have a strong basis and make sure the that there is “something in the air” with the persons within and close to the band. Make sure there is a vision, that identity is being created, image. That you’re able to put everything that has to do with the product, the band, the music, that you can enter the market, and for that it’s necessary where you want to go. All heads in the same direction seems to be step 1 to me.”
Not all bands have specific set-out goals like the DIY bands in story extract 6 and 7. Some artists
(e.g. as displayed in story extract 8) stated they would like to continue with what they are doing
(writing and/or performing), as that is what provides most satisfaction to their band, or to specific
band members in these bands. Additionally, depending on the band members’ positional strength in
the band’s social network, the personal goal of the interviewee can become the band’s goal, as can
be seen in the following story extract.
Story Extract 8 - (Social Network G) “[…] Personally, I notice I’m most happy when I write. So when I write material of which I’m satisfied myself, so to say. That’s a mission, but I think as long as that continues, <band> will exist, be it visible or less visible [in the music industry]. […] For me, it used to be very easy. With <previous band>, we made a CD ourselves and then the first single immediately became a hit, that went fast, boom! […] And then I’m in <band> and it all seems more difficult.”
In the story of this specific artist, ambiguity (Daykin, 2005) is being used as the explanation of why
this artist believes personal satisfaction is the goal of the band. Because this artist has been part of a
band in which all band activities seemed to go well, while his current band has more ‘difficulties’
according to this artist, personal satisfaction has become the personal (and band) goal in this case.
Story Extract 9 - (Social Network E) “[...] Our goal is to play like we do now, in small and large theaters. And my goal is that the theater shows are sold out so you can do that for years.”
In this specific case, it can be seen there is a difference in the band’s goal (in this case the goal of
the “band-leader”) and the goal of this specific music artist. The principal-agent problem has had a
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great amount of attention in scientific research (Eisenhardt, 1989a). Briefly summarized, the
principal-agent ‘problem’ arises when a principle hires an agent, under the condition of assymetric
information. In this case, the agent will perform for the principle. However, the agent will also act
out of self-interest, and so will the principle. In the case above, the principle (band leader) has hired
the agent (the interviewed artist). According to the artist, the current goal (of the band, thus, the
principal) is to play in small and large theaters for now, as the band leader is planning on taking a
sabbatical. However, the artist’s goal is to make sure all theater shows are sold out, so there will be
work for this specific artist, which is playing shows.
Another interesting goal-related statement of one interviewee has been that “people need to be
<bandname>’ed”, thereby referring to the identity of this DIY band (story extract 10). According to
two bands that have been in the music industry for over 20 years, their main goal has always been
to make a quality album, which these bands regard as reaching the point where they are sufficiently
satisfied with their “product” in order to release it. Subsequently, after making the album, these
bands try to get the finished product/service to the market via the partners in their social network
(e.g. SN_D and SN_J). One music artist and his manager did not want to provide any information
with regard to the goals of the artist and the band.
7:14 BAND IDENTITY AND BAND IMAGE
Band identity and band image might look like similar concepts, but there is an important difference.
According to scholars, identity in an organization is “an organization’s members’ collective
understanding of the features presumed to be central and relatively permanent, and that distinguish
the organization from other organizations.” (Gioia, Schultz and Corley, 2000, pp. 64). On
organizational image, there has been more debate. According to Dutton and Dukerich (1991),
organizational image is the way in which members of the organization believe others view the
organization. This has been refined into how the organizational elite would like outsiders to see the
organization (Gioia and Thomas, 1996). One DIY band had a clear vision on identity and image and
made the theoretical distinction that has been presented above by themselves.
Story Extract 10 - (Social Network H) “[…] Identity, that’s something we see ourselves and the thing we show to the audience, that’s image. […] Identity is that we are a cohesive collaborating group with each member having his own competencies and qualities. [Concerning image] [...] A fucking hot live band, ‘unstoppable’.” Messing around I think. Not holding back during interviews and on what we are. We’re daring, we dare to put stuff aside and to push at the right moments. I think we’re easy to approach. […] Everyone can do what he or she wants, whatever choice it may be, but we try to be accessable. […] Also the idea that you feel ‘one’ with the band.
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We’ve been doing that since the moment we started, and now, we hope that when we’re playing on a stage with an audience of 10.000 people, then we still try, kind of, the idea of “I’m standing next to them.” That’s what we’re trying to reach and that’s “image-wise”. And we try to have that relaxed image.” […] That’s the image, if you’re noticing that, and that’s what we want and what we hear from more people, that’s cool, that’s what we have chosen. That’s “image-wise”, it is the enlargement of your identity. We don’t go on stage in black suits wearing glasses, because in that case you’re switching things around. […] That is translating your identity.”
The description of the identity of this band by this specific artist belongs to hegemonic creativity,
which is described as “the notion of musical identity as an essential part of the self (Daykin, 2005,
pp. 75)” According to Daykin, stories like the one presented above reveal that the achievement of
establishing a creative identity is a continual task, thereby supporting the notion of continuous
identity development by Hall (1996). Interestingly, in the story presented above, it can be seen that
the artist perceives his establishment of the creative identity of his band as an achievement.
Although story extract 10 is a story that has been told openly by this artist, questions about band
identity and band image raised a dilemma for artists. Almost like talking with a magician about how
he or she performs tricks, talking about identity and image with music artists might reveal part of
the ‘magic’ of these bands. As a result, half of the bands talked easily about band image, but were
less willing to provide information on band identity. Two bands talked relatively open about both
concepts and expressed in clear terms what their band identity and band image was. On the other
hand, some (2) bands combined band identity and band image and did not see them as separate
concepts.
7:15 STRENGTHS OF THE BAND
What are the strengths of the band, according to the music artists? Similarly to band identity, it
appears there is a difference in music artists that talk openly about their view on band strengths,
music artists that provide ‘some’ insight into what they thought were the band strengths and bands
who merely summarized their PR riddle. According to some DIY music artists (e.g. story extract 11
and 12), the strength of their band is that their band image has been created with care. There is a
clear idea of what these bands want the fan to experience, which is relevant in relation to hedonic
consumption (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982), as this type of consumption is strongly affected by
experience. This focus on experience can also be related to the experience of culture in general, as
band culture or band experience shows many similarities to how culture is perceived. According to
Schein (2004), culture can be analyzed in several degrees to which a certain cultural phenomenon
can be visualized by the person that is observing the culture. There are three so-called levels of
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culture, which are called: artifacts, espoused beliefs and values and basic underlying assumptions.
The artifact level includes all phenomena that can be seen, heard and felt, the espoused beliefs are
the operating principles of the specific culture and the basic underlying assumptions “tell group
members how to perceive, think about, and feel about things.” (Schein, 2004, pp.31). In order to
achieve this experience, the following extracts illustrate how the these bands perceive their own
band strenghts.
Story Extract 11 - (Social Network H) “[…] No, we think like, we do everything for the band. Democracy is our identity. Everything we do, we do it together. If someone [band member] says: ‘I don’t want this, this promo [promo CD] needs to be put in a yellow sleeve with a parrot hanging upside down, I don’t like that’. If four [of the band members] say, ‘That’s awesome!’, but one doesn’t think that way, then we don’t do it. Everyone should be satisfied with what we are doing. […] The basis [of the band] is that we trust each other a lot in terms of identity, but at the same time we really know where we want to go and what kind of music we want to play. Strongly developing [the band]”
Story Extract 12 - (Social Network A) “[...] And, meanwhile, it’s very simple. We thought, together, about what we wanted to be as a band, and, basically, it meant this: we just want to be one big party. We didn’t want to be grandiloquent.”
As a result, it can be seen in story extracts 11 and 12 the band members create artifacts by
themselves. These artifacts are based on the espoused beliefs, which the artists indicate at the
bottom of both story extracts. Additionally, the focus on band career development (long term self
learning) in story extract 11 reflects on the focus on self-development of the protean career concept
(Hall, 1996)
An artist (SN_B) forms his goals around a work-life balance principle, as a result of his hectic
previous band. According to this artist, his band strength is based on “two E’s” (in Dutch):
evenwicht en eenheid, which can be translated into balance and unity. During the last decade,
research on work-life balance has had increased attention, mainly because the labor market has
changed, and still is changing, towards an labor market in which an ever-growing number of
employees needs to find balance between work and private life (Geurts, Taris, Kompier, Dikkers,
Van Hooff and Kinnunen, 2005). The artist in this case experienced the so-called work-home
conflict (Peeters, De Jonge, Janssen and Van der Linden, 2004), in which both pressure existed on
his role at his work (artist) and his private life (married and being a father). As a result, this artist
regards the (in his opinion) ‘successful’ combination of work and private life as the main strength of
his band.
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According to another artist, the strength of his band is the “band leader” using a certain approach to
achieve his goals. Because of this specific band formation, the music artist that has been
interviewed does not know whether the band leader considers this to be the band strength as well.
However, the following story extract displays his vision on this specific strength possessed by the
band leader.
Story Extract 13 - (Social Network E) “[…] He makes sure that everyone knows him, and that there is some kind of connection to everyone. Yesterday, we were in a theater in Helmond, which was burned down recently and then, there’s a talk with the director and, then, I always notice he’s trying to get something in common [with the owner] while talking to the owner of the theater.” […] “…always when you’re at the spot where you play, always a talk with the owner of the building, always knowing the names of the audio engineers. Those small things. Just to write that down, quickly, in your iPhone and the next time you say: “O, he doesn’t work here anymore? Those small things.”
The ‘art’ of creating a connection by the band leader and any desired person (from his perspective)
can be regarded as the use of his human and social capital. The artist is using his charms,
intelligence, health and looks, and these, combined with job experience and creativity as an artist
(Carter et al., 2003) enable the artist to excel in this specific task. Chandler and Hanks (1999) state
human capital is an important contributor to the success of any business. Furthermore, Baron and
Markman (2003) state the social skills of a person that deal with specific competencies that help a
person to effectively interact with others play a significant role in the “success” of these people in
starting up a new business. It seems likely that this holds in almost any social setting, thus, also the
specific setting described in the story extract. As a result, Burt’s (1992) statement of social capital
creating opportunities for applying financial and human capital holds. However, story extract 13
shows human capital can also create opportunities to increase social capital.
7:16 POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR THE BAND
How does the artist think the band in which he plays can improve? Thus, which factors might be of
help for development the artist’s career? True to the expectation of artist behavior with respect to
band image, some music artists state their bands do not have any points for improvement. Other
bands (e.g. SN_F and SN_J) state the main points for improvement can be found in music and
performance quality, which implies coming up with new sounds and other ideas for album
recordings and live performances that satisfy the subjective quality standards that have been set by
these bands. One artist argues his band should have more shows, as according to him, this will
eventually lead to getting in contact with key persons in the music industry.
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Story Extract 14 - (Social Network G) “[…] I think the same as what <befriended band> had in the beginning. They played a lot of small stages, and they played all of them. And only at a certain moment there was the break-through. I hope that will be same for us, that they [(potential) audience] will be like, “haha”, in the beginning, but later on it will be, “Hey, do you know that band from <town in which band lives>?” So that we will get into the spotlights like that.”
In story extract 14, it can be seen that the artist compares his band with a befriended band as
reasoning for why his band should have more shows. In other words, the artist is using other-
referent criteria (Heslin, 2003). Because the befriended band played many shows that eventually led
to their “break-through”, the artist believes performance frequency will eventually lead to career
development. Mallon and Walton (2004) have explored how individuals talk about learning when
being asked about their career. The findings indicate that there is less learning activity, as in self-
development, education and training than may be expected. This counters the idea of the protean
career and other career conceps that argue the labor market is moving towards self-development by
the individual instead of the organization (Hall, 1996). According to Mallon and Walton (2004),
individuals do understand the core concept of the protean career, as they believe they are
responsible for their own learning and career development. However, they are less sure on what
specific actions to take. For those who are not employed at an organization, the lacking support and
reasons for learning lead to lacking structured learning activities and the tendency of relying on
skills that have already been acquired (Mallon and Walton, 2004).
One artist (SN_B) has as main improvement point to get his newly-created band on track and up
and running. This is the case, because this artist recently left a band in which he played and earned
his living for ten years. Another band (SN_C) that exists for ten years is reformulating their band
strategy, as according to the artist all band members (except for him) are in a different phase in their
lives, as they are all starting to settle down. According to the artist of social network I, their newly
attracted lead singer is the main point for improvement. The band is more experienced than the lead
singer, which according to the music artist, will lead to nice moments for their new lead singer (and
an opportunity for the band to “re-live” their first venue and festival experiences). It is likely that
any band would like a hit single as a result of their musical endeavors, as this can (potentially) be a
sign of appreciation of their music. Interestingly, some bands believe having a hit song is an
improvement point for their bands (SN_H, SN_I and SN_E).
7:20 VIEW ON THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY
The view on the Dutch music industry by the music artists is a section in this thesis that can have
little scientific foundation in terms of supporting and conflicting literature, as a result of the specific
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context of this topic. However, NA can be applied in order to further clarify the view of the artists
on the Dutch music industry. In order to understand the view of the artists on success, it is important
to know how artists perceive the industry they are working in. All artists that have been interviewed
believe the music industry is a tough industry. Some artists (e.g. SN_D, SN_H, SN_A, SN_I)
believe although it is tough, it has worked out well and explain this in terms of achievements that
have been reached by their bands. These achievements have been albums produced or released, and
tours conducted by the bands. As a result, these bands are satisfied that their music is turned into a
commodity by the industry (Frith, 2000). The acceptance of the music industry as it is, is something
that is acknowledged by all artists that have been interviewed. Regardless of the artists’ perspective
on the industry, the common view is the artists need the industry in order to sustain (and the other
way around).
Story Extract 15 - (Social Network G) “[…] Well, the industry, I don’t really know what I have to say on that. I know that it’s a small group that determines everything, but, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. […] Could be frustrating if it doesn’t work out for you. Or it could work out well. The only thing is, it’s becoming more safe, I think. The more easily accessible versions of what’s big in America, except for specific sub-genres, those aren’t [safe]”
The theme in this story is the “small group that determines everything”. The artist in this specific
case does not know whether this is a bad thing, because this “small group” has been beneficial for
his previous band. In his current band, it “all seemed to happen” (story extract 37) during the first
three months after the album release, which is likely to result in his view that it “could be frustrating
if it doesn’t work out for you. Or it could work out well.” The idea of the music industry becoming
more “safe”, as displayed in this story extract is regarded as “a small spectrum” in the following
story extract.
Story Extract 16 - (Social Network C) “[…] I don’t have one specific view on it. You need them if you want structural success, I think. I also think, that’s purely because we have been left out by that industry, I think they are posh in some way. They determine what happens and what does not happen. That’s a small spectrum which you have to get yourself into.”
By using the tragedy plot, “we have been left out by that industry”, the artist tries to justify his view
on specific parties within the music industry being “posh” towards his band. According to the
following artist, this “small spectrum (story extract 16)” or the “safe industry (story extract 15)” is
being held in its current position because of “the media”, as can be seen in the next story extract.
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Story Extract 17 - (Social Network E) “[…] I think it’s focused on the West and if I compare it to Belgium, what I know about Belgium is that in the Netherlands, how should I say that? There are a few top artists that can live off it very well. Below that, there’s […] a lot of subtop that cannot do anything with it. It seems like there is no middle group. […] And I think that is being held in place by the media. That specific seperation. And that’s what makes it hard to live off it. If you want to belong to that top. I think this division is more strict here than it is in other countries. If you have some name/credit/reputation [in other countries], you can live off it.”
By starting to compare the Dutch music industry to the Belgian music industry, the artist in story
extract 17 is creating his opinion on the Dutch music industry. The assumed causal connection here
is that because the media are in control of the self-created seperation by the artist, which is stronger
in The Netherlands than it is in other countries, it is hard to live off music in The Netherlands. The
‘power of the media’ is acknowledged by the DIY artist (Bockstedt et al., 2005) in the story extract
below. However, this artist is proud that he has been able to work around these media.
Story Extract 18 - (Social Network I) “[…] I think it’s cool we can sell out venues by ourselves and sell our CD by ourselves without being played on the radio. I think that’s a nice ‘middle finger’. [...] We are one of the bands that do the most things themselves within The Netherlands, I believe, and of course, that is not without a cause. I mean, labels are waiting there with their hands and they don’t do a lot, you know. No one works as hard for your band as yourself. Often, I’m surprised about such things. What is being played and what’s not being played on the radio. What else can I say?”
The following two bands, which are viewed from the perspective of their managers and can also be
considered DIY, argue the industry is not to blame for anything, as the hedonic nature of music
causes the end market to determine what the industry should do. In other words, customer
experience is an important element for these bands. According to these managers, the “difficult”
Dutch consumer market is the hardest thing for bands within this industry (story extract 19 and
story extract 20).
Story Extract 19 - (Social Network A) “[…] Actually, we’re in the most difficult country. [The market] is extremely segmented. In the U.K., it’s very common to have Lady Gaga as the support act of Queen, you know. A show like that is impossible in Holland. And that’s so weird, as I don’t see that anywhere else in the world. I’ve also been to America. So, that might be the most difficult thing actually for <band>.”
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Story Extract 20 - (Social Network H) “[…] What I think of the Dutch music industry? It is the way it is. It’s not the music industry, but it’s the consumer market that is like that, and you can make products for a market like that. […] I think it’s cool what they do from the perspective of the musicians, but when I look at a different [musical] climate, especially Germany, England and America, there, they make music of higher quality. At least, the people there listen to music of higher quality. […] In Holland, there are certain roots that result in Nick en Simon selling double platinum records. You see Rene Froger getting gold, before he released 1 single. That’s the Dutch audience. It’s not the music industry, there are people that have to live off it. At a certain moment, you see that the whole music industry is focused on that [on living off music]. You can invest a lot of money in getting a new talent on the market, but if it does not appeal to the large audience, then that’s it.”
7:30 CAREER SUCCESSHow do music artists look at career success? Although this specific section will not answer the first
part of the research question yet, (career) success has been the continuous topic of conversation
during the interviews. Partly, this is because prior to the interviews, a brief introduction concerning
the thesis has been provided to the artists, in order to explain that the interview is about their vision.
Theory on success refers to career success, as the theoretical chapter in this thesis has shown. As a
result, the artists have been asked to narrate on the career concept with regard to their band-related
activities.
7:31 VIEW ON CAREERS
Arthur et al. (2005) have argued although a distinction can be made between the objective and the
subjective career, there is no uniform way of discussing a career. Reflecting on the interviews, this
has been experienced in practice as well. The results have been diverse, as the interviews revealed
that some artists reject any term that is related to ‘careers’, while others state their band is their
career. Story extract 21 illustrates an artist that would like his band activities to be his career, but
currently does not consider these activities as his career.
Story Extract 21 - (Social Network G) “[…] I would want it to be my career, but at this moment I have to teach guitar lessons. [...] I’m that realistic that if I could get my income only from my music, that it would only be that way because I accidentally wrote a hit for someone else. That’s something you can earn money with, I think. Maybe a commercial tune, those kind of things, so you stay in that area.”
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Based on this story extract, it appears that the definition of the career by Arthur et al. (2005), the
“unfolding sequence of a person’s work experiences over time (pp. 177)”, is not regarded this way
by the artist. By saying “I would want it to be my career”, it is likely that the artist looks at careers
from a more “traditional” perspective, also regarded as the objective career (Arthur et al., 2005), as
has been discussed in paragraph 2:20. Income seems to be the objective career indicator for this
artist, as according to this person, this seems to be the defining line between “having a career” and
“not having a career”. Next to this artist, there have been other artists (3) that do not regard their
band activities as their career, all for different reasons. The objective career is also reflected in the
following story extract, presenting an artist that is opposed to the career concept. According to this
person, all band activities are conducted out of “love for the band”, as a result of being unable to
live off the music.
Story Extract 22 - (Social Network H) “[…] I didn’t get into this, because I wanted a career. I studied music management at HKU [Hogeschool van de Kunsten Utrecht] and during that period I did the tour management of <other band>, and a part of the tour crew, management <another band> and internship at the marketing department [of a label]. And then, I did see some parts [of the industry]. I did see every part a bit. I cannot identify myself with music that doesn’t do something with me. I’ve got an idea of which I know how it should be done, and I’m pretty stubborn in that. I’m just going to try it. <band>, started it three years ago and developed it to what it is now. I learned and developed on the way. And to me, it’s still a learning process. I still see new things. Other countries, that’s still new to me. [...] I’m doing it out of love, so to say, because I don’t earn enough from this, I can’t live off it.”
Interestingly, one artist regarded his band as his career in the past, but does not do so anymore,
because the band is in a different phase, as can be seen from story extract 23.
Story Extract 23 - (Social Network C) “[…] Well, we’ve been trying for one week and a half to get an appointment with the four of us. That’s new. In the past, everything had to be set aside for the band, girlfriends, birthdays, everything. We always had to rehearse a lot, like four times a week or something. But that’s different now. Our guitar player is having a baby. Other [band members] are thinking of getting married. That is something.”
Other artists regard the activities for the bands in which they play as part of their career. This has
been illustrated by story extract 24 and 25. Similar to story extract 21 and 22, the artists refer to the
objective career (Arthur et al., 2005).
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Story Extract 24 - (Social Network A) “[…] I also work for the Dutch dance theater. Those are also pretty large projects. Complete operas and stuff. We do really save [money]. We also do small assignments. [...] We’ve also got a promo for Nike. [...] With that we also earn money. Those are all workarounds. And that money we save up, and in that way we survive.”
Story Extract 25 - (Social Network E) “[…] Everything I do is part of my career. That’s how I see it.”
According to Storey et al. (2005) the enterprising self is a result of the changing employment
practices in media industries. Employees become freelance workers (as is the case for the session
artist of social network E), which results in environmental pressures on these employees to see
themselves as enterprises. Although differences between freelancers and session musicians exist,
essentially the session artist is a freelancer as well, as it is a contract-based relationship where the
individual exploits himself as the enterprising self (guitar player) towards the principle (the band
leader). The concept of the enterprising self shows similarities to the protean career, as both argue
the shift in the labor market towards task-based employer-employee contracts (Storey et al., 2005;
Hall, 1996). Two artists see their band activities as their full time career. One artist is able to focus
on music full time, because of the “objective success” of his previous band, while the DIY artist in
story extract 26 receives an arts subsidy in order to be able to work full time on his band.
Story Extract 26 - (Social Network I) “[…] I’m in it full time. [...] It won’t be some gold mine anytime soon. You do have “WIK” [arts subsidy], that’s nice that that is possible, and in that way, you can work very hard. When we recorded our first album, <album title>, we all were at school and at work, and we did everything [the band work] in the evening. Also recording the record. After school one [member of the band] went to record the first part, and the next day another [member of the band] went to record another [part]. That sucks. Now, we go work together for three weeks, so you’re really working towards something together.”
7:32 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE SUCCESS
When listening to the stories of the artists, it has been discovered objective and subjective success
aspects are intertwined in these stories, irregardless of the artists’ view on career success. As a
result, this seems to supports the notion of Arthur et al. (2005) that objective success might lead to
subjective success and the other way around. The following story extracts will present the ways in
which the artists have employed objective and subjective success aspects in their narrations.
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Story Extract 27 - (Social Network G) “[…] Two music videos. We wanted to make two music videos. That was pretty cool that we were able to do that. And then, <single> was released, but that was just at the end of October or something like that. [...] In the end, they became, big, big, modest internet hits. In the end, we’ve had [...] over one million [views].”
In story extract 27, it can be seen that the artist is satisfied that he has been able to record two music
videos, which can be regarded as subjective success. On the other hand, objective success (which
might also be subjective success in this case) can be seen in the statement that the videos of this
band gathered over one million views. Objective and subjective success being intertwined is also
evident at the artist of SN_J who narrated positive reviews of the first two albums of the band
(objective success) resulted in novel recording opportunities, which were considered important to
this artist (subjective success, as this is not externally visible). The artist of SN_B experienced the
first album that he worked on himself as an indicator of success (subjective), while this is also
exaggerated for marketing purposes. The same holds for the artist of social network D, as this guitar
player narrated about the albums that have been released, the international tours that have been
conducted and the boost for the band by being the soundtrack of a Fox (U.S. broadcasting channel)
TV hit series, which all can be regarded as both subjective and objective success indicators. In story
extract 28, objective and subjective success are mixed as well. A packed festival tent during a show
can be seen as a tangible indicator of objective success (Arthur et al., 2005). However, subjective
success seems to be more important to this artist, as can be seen in this story extract.
Story Extract 28 - (Social Network H) “[...] Because you’re playing at Lowlands and you see the Charly tent [festival stage] explode, so to say. [...] That’s fantastic and that’s worth more than having 1000 euros on your bank account. At least for me, and that’s been the drive for us, it’s not money. It’s nice if it [money] comes with it, if we make it, and it’s going better and better.”
Subjective success can also be something that comes unexpected, as is shown in story extract 29.
This story extract shows the influence of time (and experience) on how the artist looks at subjective
success.
Story Extract 29 - (Social Network C) “[...] I remember we had the most fun shows in the places where we didn’t expect it. The Eagle in Bavlo, do you know that place? [...] No, we did not as well. That’s in the northern part of Groningen, where bands do not go. So if there’s a band in that village, it’s a happening. So they went nuts. [...] But then, it all is some relative thing. When I was messing around with my first band in HAVO5 and you would have told me, “you’ll be
45
featured on TMF, you will play Paradiso, you will play Melkweg, you’ll be on the radio and you’ll play over a hundred shows, I would have signed for it; deal, finished, I’m happy with that. But, you will notice you want more and more along the process.”
This has resulted in the specific artist only accepting what the band regards as “nice shows”, which
are being justified by objective success aspects achieved by the band, such getting “airplay rotation”
by Giel Beelen (radio DJ) and TMF (music video channel). As a result, this example shows that
subjective success might be an ever-changing concept, as the personal view of this artist on success
has changed over time.
Story Extract 30 - (Social Network C)! “[…] We’re only going to do nice shows. That’s for certain. It will surprise you how many times we’re still getting asked to come play somewhere, based on that stupid hit in 2005. A lot. We’re not accepting every show anymore. [...] Giel Beelen played it and TMF. The music video also stirred it up, although it was relatively innocent. But it did something, and we were featured in TMF’s [music television channel] ‘Dag Top 5’ and that kind of stuff.”
Story extract 31 shows how the combination of objective and subjective success indicators led the
manager of the band of social network A to believe that this band had something “unique”.
Story Extract 31 - (Social Network A) “[...] When they [the band] played Popronde, they played a song with a percussion thing in it and then <lead singer> would jump on the bar and would put his microphone in his pocket and say, “Quiet everyone.” And then he would sing very softly [...] and then the audience would sing along, but that was in an acoustic setting. So then <lead singer> told me, that was the first moment I thought something was going on with this band. ‘We’re now playing Paradiso, can I also do that on the large stage?’ ‘No, impossible, the people there won’t hear you.’ ‘But then I’ll sing somewhat louder. I want to do it acoustically and I want everyone in Paradiso to sing along’. I said, ‘you shouldn’t do that, you’re crazy if you do it.’ Then he said, ‘well, if everything fails, it doesn’t matter because then at least I tried.’ [response] Yeah, then you should do it. If your career is over after this, but it has been a beautiful moment for you, then you should do it. ‘Then, I’ll do it.’ So, as a support act, he jumped off stage with a bar stool, turned off his wireless microphone, and then he did it. Paradiso was sold out. I went to the bar, ‘Can I have a bottle of Vodka, please?’. This is the end. And then, he did ‘this’ with his arms and everyone was silent. Then, he started to sing, softly. First row joined in, second row joined in, and everyone started to sing along. Then the drums joined and I just heard people say, “that gives me the shivers”. Then, the [venue] programmer of paradiso came over, he was dragged out of his office by the [venue] audio engineers. ‘You have to see what this guy is pulling off.’ And, again, if all else fails, I’m ok with it as well. They pulled off some very cool tricks. That’s pretty unique.” [...] And the fact that you can pull it off and that you can get away with it, that’s unique to me.”
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This story can be regarded as a romantic plot, as “the hero overcomes daunting obstacles to attain
the object of his affections (Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010, pp. 94).” Here, the obstacles are Paradiso,
and the replication and transformation of the “accoustic setting” to a large venue. Additionally, the
intense way of storytelling fits the romantic plot, which can be seen in the lead singer of the band
wanting to pull off the acoustic song element in their show, “no matter what” happens. Furthermore,
it has been discovered that this risk-taking behavior of the lead singer, resulting in the positive
response by the audience (objective success indicator), has been an important determinant for the
manager’s subjective success (as can be seen at the bottom of both story extracts 31 and 40).
For two artists, objective success indicators (Heslin, 2005) lead to personal subjective success, as
can be seen in the following story extracts.
! Story Extract 32 - (Social Network I)! “[…] Over there, for example, the blog posts we maintain on the blog. Those are great points for self-reflection, you’ll see the hard numbers [the results]. Or the news when our lead singer left, <website>, and all the things that has been posted on. NU.nl, RTL Boulevard, you know, DWDD [De Wereld Draait Door] who were ringing your phone immediately. Those are nice things. And the tour as well. [...] And for example, the album we completely paid ourselves. In the first week, we sold 1500 copies so we broke even [in the first week]. [...] That was sick. That was a beautiful moment. [...] We broke even with our album in one week.”
In story extract 32, it can be seen that the artist first narrates about objective success indicators
(Heslin, 2005): “you’ll see the hard numbers”. Subsequently, the artist subjectively evaluates these
objective indicators, for example when media seeked contact with his band. “Those are nice
things.” The same thing occurs when this artist is narrating about the album sales of his band, and
subsequently, subjectively evaluates these sales as an accomplishment (Sturges, 1999). “That was
sick. That was a beautiful moment.” Story extract 33 shows this phenomenon in reverse order. The
story shows a subjective success indicator, enjoyment (Sturges, 1999), that is being connected to an
objective success indicator, the “play-payoff-rating”.
Story Extract 33 - (Social Network E) “[…] I mean, we all know it’s fun to play together, and if you look at the “play-payoff- rating”, it’s relatively attractive to do. [I: So, with that you mean, relatively seen, you earn a lot compared to the time you put in it?]Yes, for example, I don’t have to pay promotion material, I don’t have to pay for the CD, I don’t have to pay for technical engineering. Except SENA [“copyright holders” payment agency].”
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7:33 VIEW ON CAREER SUCCESS
Story Extract 34 - (Social Network H) “[...] Success is a relative concept, what’s success? Is success the fact that you like what you’re doing and you play once a week or once a month, if you believe that’s success, you like it, and you’re making a [festival] tent ‘explode’, then that’s the thing you do and that can make you very happy, and you can see that as success.”
This story extract has been derived from the very beginning of one of the interviews and basically
presents the research question of this thesis and the general answer to subjective success. As Arthur
et al. (2005) have shown, whether an artist is subjectively successful depends on the personal view
on success of that specific artist. The manager of the DIY band of Social Network H explains his
view on success by setting boundaries to success, which supports the notion of subjective career
success by Arthur et al. (2005). Theoretically, one can speak of goal-setting (Etzioni, 1964; Latham
and Locke, 2002), as the next story extract shows that career success to this artist seems to be able
to live off the band.
Story Extract 35 - (Social Network H) “[...] You have to define your boundaries first. What is success? The boundaries we make and the boundaries I make with the band is that you try to make it sustainable. That you’re able to live off it. The sustainability thing is that you can live off music. That’s tough today. Some people in The Netherlands are able to do it. [...] We sat around the table like we’re doing now and we said, “This is where we are, this is where we need to go.” That’s Noorderslag, Lowlands, artistic development, live development. We discussed all parts and put it in a plan and in that way, made the path to our own success.”
Story extract 35 shows the artist of Social Network H has created a goal, which is to live off the
music of his band. Story extract 36 shows how this goal determines the view of this artist on
success.
Story Extract 36 - (Social Network H) “[...] If we have the goal to live off it, no, then we’re not a successful band yet. According to the audience, who have been thinking we’re already there for a long time, you notice now that there are screaming girls at the front row and for them [band] are the new stars. I don’t know how to put it, there are people who think it’s amazing, let’s call it something like that, because we aren’t stars yet, but those people have the idea that this band is doing extremely well in the media.”
However, later on in the interview, this artist acknowledges there is more to his view on success
than solely achieving the goal to be able to live off the band.
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Story Extract 37 - (Social Network H) “[...] Success isn’t only to be able to live off it. I have to adjust that, because it’s also the experience. You can be at an office between 9 to 5 typing each day, but you can also do something that’s rock ‘n roll. That’s your motivation and that’s what keeps you busy. You’re working with people, you’re working with music. You’re generating a beautiful product, which you want to be part of, and that’s also part of generating success, because you’re there at Lowlands, and you see that Charlie [tent] explode. [...] The higher you set the bar, the longer it will take for success to come your way. [...]”
This view on success, as expressed in story extract 37, is supported by the artist of Social Network
B. According to this artist, success implies working on all music-related activities that deliver
satisfaction to himself, irregardless of objective results. Other artists (e.g. SN_D, SN_F, SN_J)
believe career success mainly implies the creation of music of which their band is satisfied. Thus,
whereas the artist of Social Network B discusses all music-related activities with regard to his
subjective success, these bands specifically relate “career” success solely to the subjective quality
assessment of their music. As a result, objective success does not matter to the view on success of
these artists. However, it is acknowledged objective success of these bands as perceived by parties
outside of the band inclusion (Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010) can be of help to this perspective on
success. For example, favorable press coverage concerning tours and albums, and commercial
syncs, do provide new music opportunities according to these artists.
Story extract 38 presents an artist who is having some difficulties in explaining what success means
to him. Success to this artist seems to be achieving the momentum of establishing a spot within in
the Dutch music industry.
Story Extract 38 - (Social Network G) “[...] Well, I think that’s very difficult. Look, successful bands are bands that have success for like 10 years. And eh, that it comes around easily. There is <band> for example. They have had a lot of airplay on 3FM. That’s a successful band so to say, big hit and stuff. Ah well. There is a new 3FM serious talent and well, it’s all relative. [...] Success to me is that you’re playing on “the” stages and that your CD is being sold. We played at ‘Zwarte Cross’, that was nice. Maybe, in our best days, we were in the sub top so to say. Eh, I think success, what I experience as success were the first three months in which it seemed that everything was happening. So you’re playing Noorderslag and you’re presenting your CD at Michiel Veenstra [Radio DJ]. And Giel [Radio DJ] and stuff. Then, you’ve got the idea, now we’re, yes, now it’s happening. Shows and stuff and it’s working. Those are parts of success. [...]”
The artist of Social Network I views success as the sum of the band-related activities that his DIY
band has achieved by themselves, as can be seen in story extract 39.
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Story Extract 39 - (Social Network I) “[...] I’m thinking back a lot to everything we’ve achieved and the tour, the way we have done that, that’s a moment in which we were like, “What the fuck!” All by ourselves we’ve sold out Tivoli and Paradiso. Then, I think you’re successful. But, I also think that success can be seen at earlier stages you know. I think it’s an achievement when 5 guys who’ve only been making music for a couple of years achieve such things, and only being present [CDs] at stores. That’s a moment, of which I think, “Wow.” [...] That we’ve been asked by <other band> to do that support tour, actually that’s success. They thought we were cool and we could play there 16 times in 2 months, you know. [...] That’s what I call success. I think, if we’re playing Lowlands, it’s even more success and if we release the second album, and if that album is better than the first one. [...]”
This view on success, in which objective success is subjective success as well, is also reflected in
the following story extract. Interestingly, the view “from the other side” by the manager of this
DIY band results in the explanation by this manager of the moment (as introduced in story extract
31) where he did not see this specific band as “just work” anymore.
Story Extract 40 - (Social Network A) “[…] The funny thing is that I’ve produced [albums] and worked with many bands. I even worked with <artist> and <artist> and who else... But I always did my work and then I left. But here I said to the band, I’ll become your manager. I’ll make sure you won’t have the misery of a record label. But, then I’ll share [in the ‘profit’]. If everything fails, we didn’t earn shit. Then we’ve worked for a year, but if we succeed, then I share [in the profit] as well. That’s the deal. [...] The band has got a salary since ten months. Just 1000 euro a month, they all pay a rent of 200 euro, those amounts of money. [I: When was the moment where you thought, wow, this isn’t just recording an album?] When <lead singer> pulled that trick with the microphone in Paradiso as the support act of [band].”
7:40 SOCIAL NETWORKSChapter IV has aimed to introduce what social networks are and what the theoretical state of
literature is regarding the main concepts of social network research. The first part has led to the
discovery that social networks are “a set of actors that may have relationships with one another
(Hanneman and Riddle, 2005, pp. 2)” In practice, all artists believed social networks implied social
media. This is displayed in story extracts 41 and 42.
Story Extract 41 - (Social Network G)I: Let’s move on to the topic of social networks. Do you know what they are? [...]R: Facebook, Twitter and Hyves, right?
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Story Extract 42 - (Social Network I)I: What do you think of when you think about social networks?R: That’s basically Twitter, that’s our core business. [...] It’s the easiest. You reach a lot of people in an easy way. Just short, no crap.
Social media are an important part of the social networks of all artists, as all artists displayed social
media in their drawings, usually by naming social networking sites. Ellison et al. (2007) have
shown social media use is positively related to all three types of capital, which indicates the
importance of using these media by artists. As mentioned in chapter VI, the artists have drawn their
social networks according to their own vision. In short and simplified, their assignment has been to
write down their band name and start drawing lines to all the parties which the artist perceived are
important to himself, and thus in most cases, the band of discussion. This section will provide an
overview of that specific process. As mentioned in the methodological section of this thesis, all
digitalized versions of the drawings can be found in Appendix D.
The following story extract shows the manager of this DIY band explaining how he has drawn the
social network of his band. This artist specifically focuses on the circles of the social network that
has been presented in figure 7.
Figure 7: digitalized version of social network (H) that has been drawn by artist.
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Story Extract 43 - (Social Network H) “[...] This is the center and that’s <band>. <own name>, this is what we do. There’s a label in it. Here’s management. [...] This is where the ideas come from. Communication, PR, this is the ‘epicenter’, everything we do. [...] What’s close to us, is our family. And actually, that’s the crew {#1}. [...] And what’s important with the crew is that, 1) they are people with a heart, [that] they fit [with us], that’s the number one criterium. 2) are they able to do something? and 3), what are the costs? And that first thing is the most important, and that’s what you’re looking for. People with personality and love and the same vision as what we work with. Those people we’re looking for. <booking agency> <booking agent> has got those [criteria], I felt that with <name>. <distributor> is a bit more formal and business-like, but that’s what they do. They don’t create anything, they only put something, boom, in the market. That’s totally cool. Plugger is also like that, but that’s what he’s doing as well. But he needs to work with our philosophy, that’s something you can direct. [...] And for the rest, you’ve got your own ways to communicate. That’s PR via social media and your own physical network, from newspaper to weblog, so to say, what they [label, plugger, booking agency] have got, we’ve got ourselves as well. And with that, you’ve got direct relations as well. This is how we roll, I think.”
This specific way of drawing a “band center”, accompanied with the story that has been presented
above shows the existence of both human and social capital that can be extracted from this social
network. Criterium one and two in story extract 43 mainly focus on the network’s human capital, as
human capital includes concepts as creativity, judgment and vision (Carter et al., 2003).
Consequently, the “crew” in story extract 43 can be regarded as social capital, due to the specific
focus on the resources that can be gained from those specific actors in the network (Inkpen and Tsai,
2005). According to Cohen and Prusak (2001), social capital is the basis for human connection and
cooperation. Additionally, Leana and Van Buren (1999) state organizational social capital is
managed by long-term relationships, the ideology of teamwork and a shared responsibility for
performance, which are present in both story as well as drawing. As a result, this DIY artist
develops his social network himself by setting a number of criteria for other actors to participate in
this network. The following story extract shows how another DIY band “shopped” for social and
human capital for the development of the band’s social network.
Story Extract 44 - (Social Network A) “[...] So it seemed that it was getting serious. So then I thought, we can do two things. You [the band] can go to a record label, but you say you want to live off it [the music]. I don’t think you’re able to do that within the next two years, because the costs are very high and the, at this moment, the deals are very hard. You’ll lose everything. [...] And then I asked <friend>, the band wants to earn money as soon as possible, well, not as in getting rich, but to live off it. So financially, we have to make a plan. I don’t want a record deal with
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everything in one pack. I want everything separated, I want a separate booking agency, a separate publisher, a separate PR-guy, so there won’t be any corruption [agency problem]. And then I started to write songs. Meanwhile, all the parties started to come to us. And then I decided to go for <booking agency>, they already prepared a complete package for us, but I didn’t want that, except for <publisher>, the publisher. Because they have a lot of contacts, independents, in the States, as one of the only ones. If you sign to Sony Netherlands, you’ll never get to Sony America. Those two don’t cooperate. However, if you have an independent [publisher], who’s doing his work in other countries, then you’ll get there. <publisher> is the best choice for that, I believe. That specific plugger, I wanted <PR>, a very skilled PR-woman, I wanted her. And that’s how we shopped.”
Story extract 44 shows how the manager of this DIY band contacted his friend, denoted by <friend>
in social network A, to create a plan which entailed getting all parties needed for the band, while not
being bound to a record label. As Kilduff and Tsai (2003) have shown, personal contacts that
involve friendship are important to the formation of these ties, as it is likely for transitivity to
emerge between the artist and the other parties. As a result, in the drawing, this friend is denoted by
a strong tie (Granovetter, 1973). This is likely to be the case, because of multiplexity, as there are
multiple relationships between these two actors. This supports Kilduff and Tsai’s (2003) notion that
multiple relationships between actors result in increased tie strength. Additionally, this friend has
obtained a brokerage position in this network (Burt, 1992), as this person has facilitated the
connection between the band and the parties mentioned in story extract 44. However, the artist did
not draw lines between the friend and the other parties, although these do exist in practice.
In contrast to the DIY bands (story extract 43 and 44) that narrated on how parties have been
selected for the leverage of capital out of their social network, the following DIY artist states:
Story Extract 45 - (Social Network I) “[...] We don’t easily let people access our social network. Actually, the only ones we have are <booker/manager>, <studio producer>, and <booking agent>, the booking agent.” [About their distribution partner] “You know what’s the thing. Those guys have to do one single thing, which is bringing it [the album] to the stores, so I don’t give a shit.” [Concerning publishing agencies] “[...] a waste [of money] to give one third of your rights [of the music] to. [...] No one works as hard for your money as you do yourself.”
This vision on social networks shows similarities to what Baker and Nelson call bricolage, “making
do with what is at hand” (2005, pp. 329). The artist of social network I does not believe that
external parties work as hard for his band as all the band members of this specific band do
themselves. As a result, the band of this artist does not easily collaborate with other parties in the
music industry, as can be seen in both story extract 45 as well as social network I.
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Other artists make use of their bands’ social networks in a different way compared to the bands of
story extract 43 and 44. According to the artist of social network J, the band in which he plays is
strongly connected to the studio producer with whom the last two albums have been made.
Additionally, the record label and the management agency of the band have strong connections,
according to this artist, to both one another as well as to the band themselves. The remaining parties
of this social network that have been drawn are also considered important to this artist. However,
this artist has indicated the band’s management, record label and producer consist of the band’s
most intensive relations. As a result, this artist has denoted these relations with “strong ties” (thick
lines) (Granovetter, 1982). The main network-related task for the band is to ensure communication
via social media towards (potential) fans. The other parties in the social network deal with band-
related tasks, which the artist is less concerned with. The artist of social network F is having a
comparable network, as in him (next to composition, recording and performance processes) taking
care of direct communication towards (potential) fans, while multiple management agencies
(depending on the type of request) take care of all other forms of communication. According to this
artist, as stated by one of his managers, this is because “<artist> has to put a tremendous amount of
time and energy in this [composition, recording and performance] and rather does not think about
this. He does not have the time and energy for that.” As a result, this artist has enabled other parties
in his social network to take over band-related activities, so he is able to focus on all music-related
tasks, thereby solely focusing on the artist activities as mentioned by Kretschmer (2005):
composing, recording and performing music.
The artist of social network B used to have this same view in his previous band. Today, in his
newly-formed band, he purposely founded his own company in order to make sure there is balance
between work and private life. In other words, since two years this artist started to walk “the path”
the other way around, namely, from a social network in which the artist is solely doing what is
described in Kretschmers’ (2005) definition towards a network in which the artist’s job description
(Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2002) exceeds composing, producing and performing music. As a
result, a decision has been made to shift from record label to DIY. Another band (Social Network
D), thus not a single artist as is the case above, made a move which shows similarities to the artist
of Social Network B. 22 years ago, this band signed to an U.S. based record label. After being
signed to that specific record label, the band decided to start their own record label in 2000. This
record label has taken over many activitities of the band of this artist ever since, as well as projects
of other artists that are befriended with the band. Story extract 46 will show how the band of one
artist eventually became a DIY band in it’s most pure form, as a result of being unable to leverage
capital from their social network. Initially, the artist has been able to use extract both human and
social capital out of his social network. For example, this led to the creation of a music video, which
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went viral and caused a boost for the band’s popularity, resulting in an increased amount of shows
and extensive media coverage. However, from the point where the single sales of this band dropped,
no party in the music industry was interested in this band anymore. In this case, it resulted in the
band (eventually) doing everything themselves without collaborating with any partner in the music
industry.
Story Extract 46 - (Social Network C)
[...] In that period, we created a demo [CD] and that CD was valued at LiveXS [magazine] and we played at Paradiso as demo of the month or whatever they call it over there. And then, we were selected for the finals of the VARA [public broadcasting organization] band competition, that’s a band competition. VARA had a show about bands with a competition attached to that show, and we won that competition. It was the same night as Paradiso. [...] You feel great at that moment. And then, because of my internship, I was studying journalism and I had an internship at a media company, I got into touch with a guy who owned a commercial agency, which included a [record] label, just for fun. So I approached him and asked him whether he wanted to do some work with us [band]. And as a result, they created a music video for <single> at that time. And it totally exploded and we had our ‘fifteen minutes of fame’, so to say. In the year after that moment, we’ve played a lot. [...] That came out of nowhere. We started with a small article in the local newspaper, <local newspaper>, in which was an article: ‘Band threatened because of <single>’ We had to laugh about that. The next day such an article was in Telegraaf [national Dutch newspaper]. [...] It was hilarious. And when it was [featured] in Telegraaf, I had Giel [Beelen] on the phone whether we wanted to play in his show the day after. And DWDD [De Wereld Draait Door], RTL Boulevard, everyone picked up the news. That was awesome. And then, that was funny, record companies didn’t get it, because it just started, they ordered 1000 singles and those singles, in 2005, at that time people did download but not in such large amounts as today, at that time you still sold physical single [copies] and after those first 1000 singles, wow, that went fast. Then, they ordered 3000 [copies] more and we still have 2700 [copies] left. [...] It didn’t continue. No one in the industry was going for it. [...] Then we made some more singles with the same people, and <single> got airplay by TMF, it had airplay for eight weeks and that was it. Then, in 2007, [...] our guitarist had a workshop of <producer>. [...] He knew how it worked and he liked us. So we worked a couple of years with him. Went to every record label, but no one was grabbing the leech, basically just like <other band>, who is largely inspired by <own band>, so to say. They’re having the same problem, as it is difficult to label [them]. [...]“You’re writing venue programmers by e-mail. That still has to be done for this job, and lots of calls as well. Just calling. [...] Some programmers find it annoying, I notice. Then you quickly switch to e-mail, before you fuck up the contact. Usually, then, you won’t hear any response.
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In contrast to the story extract that has been presented above, in which multiple actors are denoted
that are theoretically part of the social network of this specific artist, these actors have not been
denoted in the social network drawing of this artist (social network C). For example, the record
label, producer and distributor have been present in the stories of this artist, while these parties have
not been visualized in the social network drawing by the artist.
This phenomenon, in which the stories are inconsistent with the drawings, has occurred in multiple
interviews. Partly, this might be caused because of the influence of time on the stories of the artists.
Most bands have drawn the most recent version of their vision on their social network, which
results in actors from earlier band phases not being present in the “current” social network of the
artist. However, other factors might also have resulted in these inconsistencies. Chapter VIII, which
presents the discussion and conclusion of this thesis, will discuss the influence of these (and all
other) findings on answering the research question of this thesis.
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VIII. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 8:57 8:10 HOW TO CONCLUDE
In this part of the thesis, all previous chapters will be bound together in order to answer the research
question that has been presented in chapter I: How do artists look at career success and do social
networks play a role in achieving this success? Additionally, the study will be discussed in terms of
its limitations, suggestions for future research and both theoretical and practical implications as a
result of the findings.
This thesis has started with a theoretical journey through scientific articles and books that have
discussed all related matters to career success, social networks and existing relations between these
two concepts. The end report of this journey has been presented in chapters II, IV and V. From a
purely scientific view, chapter III is less valuable. However, in order to understand the data analysis
in chapter VII, as well as from a practical viewpoint, this chapter has been of significant value. Next
to providing a general overview concerning the international and Dutch music industry, this chapter
has provided a brief explanatory introduction to parties in the music industry that have been
mentioned in the stories of the artists. As chapter VI has shown by means of Eisenhardt’s (1989b)
framework in the context of this master thesis, this concluding chapter will provide the reader with
propositions based on the research that has been conducted. These propositions will be ‘grounded’
by the story extracts and literature that have been presented in chapter VII, as well as substantiative
literature that has been consulted in this chapter.
8:20 THE ARTISTS’ CONTEXT
As no person is the same, there are no similar artists. However, chapter VII did show interesting
patterns consisting of similarities and differences among the artists that have been interviewed.
Based on the stories of the artists and the literature that has been consulted, this paragraph will
propose two types of artists. However, as supported by the variety in the stories in chapter VII, any
form of making a ‘model’ or ‘classification’ is a simplified view of reality. Therefore, this paragraph
aims to show how this distinction beween artist type has developed.
Chapter VII has shown all bands have originated within the same (spatial) environment. This
environment, which forms the starting point of the artists’ social networks, was either the place of
their musical schooling, church, or simply the town in which all band members lived. Subsequently,
this first inclusion (Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010) did change in many occasions. Some bands
replaced band members because of a different view between the band inclusion and an artist in the
band (story extract 3, 4 and 5). This different view can arise because of different personal goals (e.g.
SN_A and SN_I) of band members or a different musical vision (e.g. SN_J) among band members.
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“All heads in the same direction seems to be step one to me.” (story extract 8). This goal-related
quote with regard to the band’s overall strategy has been the basis of the discovery of the existence
of different goal scopes among the artists. There seems to be a difference between artists that set
goals for their bands by themselves (e.g. SN_A, SN_H, SN_I), artists that set goals “only” for their
music in terms of their subjective quality evaluation of the music (the goal is attained when the
band is satisfied with the music quality) (e.g. SN_F and SN_J) and artists that do not actively set
goals (SN_C and SN_G). Whether the artist has a band-goal setting state of mind is reflected on the
artist’s view on the band’s identity and image. The artists who set out band goals themselves have
been narrating detailed stories consisting of a clear vision and opinion with regard to these two
concepts (e.g. story extract 10), while other artists (e.g. SN_F and SN_J) were less willing (and
perhaps less able) to discuss this topic. The same pattern is visible in paragraph 7:15 and 7:16,
which have discussed band strength and points for improvement from the artist’s perspective. The
‘goal-minded’ artists narrated in detail on both topics by themselves, while other artists (e.g. SN_F,
SN_J and SN_D) were not able to or did not want to provide such a detailed narration. These
differences are likely to exist because of the set of tasks that the artists in these bands have. Chapter
VII has shown there are so-called Do It Yourself (DIY) artists (Bockstedt et al. 2005) and label
artists, which results in two different “job descriptions” (Torrington et al., 2002), as has been
displayed in figure 8.
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Figure 8: The distinction between DIY and Label artists.
Chapter III has shown a record label can take over many activities of these bands. This has been the
case for the artists of social network F and J, as shown in paragraph 7:40. On the contrary, DIY
artists have to conduct the activities of a record label by themselves, as can be seen in story extract
43 and 44. As a result, the “job-description” (Torrington et al., 2002) of any artist is dependent on
the extent to which other actors in the artist’s social network take care of band-related tasks. Thus,
irregardless of the willingness of the artist to narrate about these band-related matters, DIY artists
simply do have more to tell about non-music activities, as these activities are ‘part of their job’,
while this is not the case for the label artists. Based on these discoveries, propositions 1a en 1b have
been formulated:
Proposition 1a: Music artists can be divided into label artists and DIY artists.
Proposition 1b: The difference between these two concepts is that the job description of the first is
limited to the composition, recording and performance of music, while the job description of the
second comprises all band activities of these music artists.
8:30 THE CAREER CONCEPTLooking at the concept of careers, chapter VII has shown there is no uniform way of discussing a
career by artists, thereby supporting Arthur et al. (2005). The artists of social network G, H and C
do not even consider their band-related activities as their career, while according to the previously
discussed career literature, these activities can be considered their career. Furthermore, chapter VII
has shown there are artists who argue their band-related activities are part of their career (SN_A and
SN_E), thereby accepting the career concept. (Arthur et al., 2005) Lastly, there are artists (SN_D &
SN_I) who state their band activities are their “full time” careers, which also indicates the
acceptance of the career concept. These artists state (e.g. story extract 26) they have made the
decision to and are able to derive their full income out of their band. The three perspectives on the
career concept have been displayed in figure 9.
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Figure 9: Artists’ perspective on the career concept in relation to their band activities.
As a result, it is likely that part of the artists’ view on the career concept is derived from the way the
artist perceives the Dutch music industry, of which it is acknowledged there is a small top that can
live off music, while a large ‘subtop’ is unable to live off music (story extracts 15, 16 and 17).
Therefore, it seems music artists base their career perspective (thus, whether they “have” a career)
on their ability to live off their music activities, which would reject Heslin’s (2005) notion of the
subjective career, while supporting the objective career concept by Arthur et al. (2005). This results
in the following proposition:
Proposition 2: Music artists view the career concept from an objective perspective.
8:40 CAREER SUCCESSAlthough the artists view the career concept from an objective perspective, success is discussed
from both a subjective as well as an objective perspective. Before presenting the propositions with
regard to success, three notes should be made. Firstly, irregardless of what the artists’ view is
concerning (career) success, this view can be considered the subjective career success of the artist,
as the artists discuss the apprehension of their “careers” (Arthur et al., 2005). Secondly, as the
author belongs to an inclusion (Peverelli and Verduyn, 2010) that is outside of the band inclusion,
objective success indicators are always mentioned by the artist, irregardless of their view on
success, as this is the only evaluation point for persons outside of the band inclusion. Two (related)
studies by Zwaan et al. (2009; 2010) only focus on objective career success of Dutch pop artists, as
it is argued objective career success is the only basis for the comparison of individual careers.
However, the objective success indicators (performance and airplay frequencies) in this study have
been measured subjectively as the data has been provided by the pop artists themselves, thereby
risking both contamination as well as deficiency of these objective success indicators (Heslin,
2005). Thirdly, one artist can have have multiple views on success, as has been shown in story
extracts 34, 35 and 36.
Despite these notes, chapter VII has made discoveries in the artists’ views on success. Firstly, there
is a difference between artists who have created a distinct view of success and artists who could not
or did not create such a view. The artists struggling with their view on success regard success as
“something” they either had for a short time, as during that specific time shows were available and
products (albums) were being sold (e.g. story extract 38 and story extract 46). Secondly, of the
artists that do have a distinct view on success, the analysis of the interviews has revealed there are
DIY artists who view success as the attainment of goals that have been set out by both artist and
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band (e.g. story extract 49) and there are label artists who view success as the attainment of their
subjective music quality evaluation. These discoveries have been displayed in figure 10.
Figure 10: The view on “career” success by music artists.
The DIY artists that set “boundaries to their success (story extract 35)”, as the artists of social
network H, A, B and I have done, are the artists that link their view on success to goals that have
been set out by and for the band. These artists set (specific) goals for both themselves and their
bands (Etzioni, 1964; Latham and Locke, 2002; Greenhouse et al., 1995). Chapter VII (7:13) and
paragraph 8:20 have shown these goals comprise more than the artist’s activities that have been
presented by Kretschmer (2005). As a result, the personal view on success of these artists shows
many similarities to the goal-setting of their band. Therefore, these artists view and evaluate success
based on the attainment of these personal and band goals. From that perspective, success to DIY
artists implies the attainment of these goals (e.g. story extract 36 and 39). Research by Abele and
Spurk (2008) shows career goals and focussing on development will lead to increased career
satisfaction in the first years of employment. However, their results showed that after seven years,
the relation between these concepts became negative. As most goal-setting DIY artists are part of
bands that are aged younger than seven years, this might become a problem to those artists. This
discovery has led to the formulation of the following proposition:
Proposition 3: DIY artists view career success as the attainment of personal and band-related goals.
This goal-driven DIY view on success is opposed to another group of artists (e.g. SN_F & SN_J)
who do not regard success as the attainment of specific goals, as it is known in literature (Latham
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and Locke, 2002). These artists derive their view on success from the personal and subjective
quality assessment of their music. This viewpoint implies that in contrast to the aforementioned
band-related goal setting, music in its purest art form is most important to these artists. Therefore,
once these artists (given the limitations imposed by the parties they work with in their social
network) feel they are satisfied with their products and services, they regard that satisfaction as
success. According to Styhre and Eriksson, next to science, culture and art are regarded as two “of
the most praised human accomplishments (2007, pp. 47).” On the other hand, artists are being
marginalized until they have achieved recognition within their specific field (Menger, 1999) This
view on success shows similarities to Boyce-Tillman’s (2000) description of the creative process of
artists. The creative process is that of a heroic journey, which involves “struggle, mastery and
conquest from which the notion of the of the musical genius emerges as male, isolated and rejected
and only achieving fame after death” (Boyce-Tillman, 2000, pp. 77) According to Daykin (2005),
these kinds of ideas have led to the concept of aesthetic autonomy, in which the ‘real’ artist
purposely excludes himself from society. Leppert acknowledged this, as musicological writing is
considering “how music means and how its meanings help produce both society and
culture” (Leppert, 1993, pp.16) of increased importance. As a result, it is impossible to state the
artists of social network D, F and J are artists who separate theirselves from society. However,
struggle, mastery and conquest fits with the striving to create their subjective “work of quality”,
which these artists view as success. This results in the following proposition:
Proposition 4: Label artists view career success as the attainment of their subjective evaluation of
the quality of their art (music).
8:50 THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN ACHIEVING SUBJECTIVE
CAREER SUCCESSWhether social networks play a role in the artist’s view on success seems to be dependent on the
“type” of artist, the subsequent view on success and the artist’s perspective on the social network’s
capital. A social network, in its simplest form is “a set of actors that may have relationships with
one another” (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005, pp. 2) and the basis for social network research is the
“emphasis on relations between actors, a recognition of the embeddedness of exchange in social
relations, a belief in the structural patterning of social life, and an emphasis on the social utility of
network connections” (Kilduff and Brass, 2010, pp. 5). Both chapter V and chapter VII have shown
the three types of capital are closely connected and related to one another. Story extract 14 showed
the artist “makes sure everyone knows him and that there is some kind of connection to everyone”,
which is an indication of social creating opportunities for human capital and the other way aound
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(Burt, 1992). However, in chapter VII it also appeared there are artists that attach less value to their
social network, on purpose or as a result of discontinued relationships. When connecting the basic
social network concepts to how the artists have used social networks in order to achieve their
success, as presented in chapter VII, it can be argued social networks can play a role in achieving
the artists’ success. The subsequent part of this paragraph will discuss the differing extent of the
importance of social networks for achieving the aforementioned subjective career success of artists.
This has been visualized in figure 11.
Figure 11: Overview of the extent to which social networks play a role in subjective careeer
success of music artists.
In story extract 43, it is displayed how the artist of social network H has established a social
network with “people with a heart”, which he regards as the “crew” of the band. Actors with this
“philosophy” (story extract 43) become part of the social network of the band and do contribute to
“living off music” (story extract 35) and “generating a beautiful product, which you want to be part
of (story extract 37)”, which determines success for this specific artist. This crew mainly provides
social and human capital, while the parties outside of the crew inclusion can provide all three types
of capital (directly or indirectly). Story extract 45 has presented the story of the DIY artist on how
the band “shopped” for actors in their social network in order to achieve the goal of “living off
music”, which determines this artist’s view on success. As a result, in this case, one actor provided a
plan for establishing financial capital, while the other actors are part of the social network as they
“deliver” all three types of capital (directly or indirectly). These two examples show how these
DIY artists make use of the three types of capital both within and outside of their band inclusion in
order to create and maintain social networks that enable these artists to fulfill the goals of their
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bands. According to Zwaan, ter Bogt and Raaijmakers (2010), “social networks are important as
knowing ‘the right people’ might lead to career opportunities and career advancement. A study
among Artist and Repertoire (A&R) managers working in the music industry showed that investing
in a professional network is indeed an important requirement for pop musicians to become
successful (pp. 18).” Again, it needs to be noted that success in this case implies objective success
indicators (performance and radio/television airplay frequencies) that have been subjectively
reported by pop musicians. As a result, these cases indicate social networks are important for
achieving the artists’ success due to the capital that is leveraged from the various actors in these
networks.
On the other hand, story extract 45 has shown the DIY artist believes “no one works as hard for
your money as you do yourself”, which results in this artist being reluctant to add actors to his
social network. As a result, social, human and financial capital is extracted within the band
inclusion, while little capital is “mined” outside of the band inclusion. Therefore, social network I
consists of a smaller amount of actors in comparison to social network A and H. Additionally, the
actors do not have to fit with the band’s philosophy, as can be seen from the strictly formal
relationships that are maintained with the other actors in the social network (story extract 45).
However, the artist of social network I employs a similar view to success (and regards himself as
‘succesful’ (story extract 39 & story extract 32)) in comparison to the artists of social networks A
and H. This indicates different “roads to success” are possible.
For artists who regard success as the satisfaction derived from the subjective quality evaluation of
their music, other actors in the social network (usually in the form of (at least) a record label and
management) work on the “business side of music”, while these artists focus on composing,
recording and performing music (Kretschmer, 2005). Social networks F and J show artists that are
strongly connected to both management as well as record label, while (compared to the other social
networks) there are fewer relationships with other actors in the network. In these cases, other actors
in the social network use their social, human and financial capital to facilitate means (e.g. studio
time and shows) that help these artists in attaining their subjective quality evaluation. As a result,
the three aforementioned roles of social networks with regard to the artists’ success have been
captured in proposition 5 and 6.
Proposition 5: Social networks can support music artists in attaining subjective career success.
Proposition 6a: Depending on the DIY artist’s choice and ability to gather social, financial and
human capital outside of the band inclusion, social networks either play a significant or a small role
in attaining subjective career success for this type of artist.
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Proposition 6b: Social networks can play a role in the subjective success attainment for the label
artist, as the social, financial and human capital leveraged by actors in these networks facilitate
means to attain subjective career success.
As a result, these examples show social networks can play a supporting role in the view on success
by music arists. However, as noted in chapter VII, it has been discovered the social network
drawings sometimes do not portray actors who, based on the aforementioned definition by
Hanneman and Riddle (2005), “should” be part of this network. It is possible this is caused by the
influence of time, as the social network drawings are a static snapshot of the relations of the artist
and the other actors in the network (Kilduff and Brass, 2010), while chapter VII has shown these
relationships change on a continuous basis. Other reasons might be the different willingness among
artists to reveal their social networks and the dissimilar set of skills by artists of accurately drawing
social networks. On the other hand, in some occasions the social network drawings are largely
analogue to the artists’ stories. As a result, the drawings of the social networks have been of great
value for discovering and clarifying the stories of the artists throughout the thesis, but no
conclusions can be derived from these drawings alone. This can be regarded as a limitation of the
research method that has been chosen by the author. The subsequent paragraph will elaborate on
this and other limitations of the study and will make suggestions for future research.
8:60 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Although this thesis has been able to come up with interesting discoveries, as can be seen in the
results that have been presented in chapter VII and the propositions that have been discussed in this
chapter, limitations should be bound to this thesis’ conclusions. This paragraph will present these
limitations along with suggestions for future research.
The first limitation is the mentioned notion that although the social network drawings have been of
significant value for the discovery of patterns in the data, the clarification of the findings and the
anonymous presentation of these patterns and findings, it is impossible to come to conclusions that
are based on these drawings alone. Paragraph 8:40 has shown factors such as time, willingness and
skills might influence the accuracy of the drawings in comparison to the stories of the artists.
Additionally, Coviello (2005) argues this thesis’ retrospective approach results in limitations as a
result of relying on the memory of the research subjects. Gathering interview data from multiple
band members could partly eliminate this issue. On the other hand, the variety of drawings that
have been presented might serve as a starting point for research endeavors on why artists (or
individuals in general) employ a certain way of drawing social networks. Ego-centric networks are
based on the reported relations of the individual and the other actors in the network (irregardless of
65
using a quantitative or qualitative network analysis approach). Thus, a suggestion for future
research is the investigation on how individuals decide whether actors are part of their social
network. This will strengthen quantitative methods to network analysis, which are criticized of
“oversimplifying” network analysis, while it also strengthens qualitivative methods to network
analysis, as providing insight still is the main contribution of applying this approach (Coviello,
2005).
Furthermore, this thesis has led to the discovery of music artists having dissimilar job descriptions
(Torrington et al., 2002), which results in future research possibilities on the importance of social
networks (in general) to individuals in the arts and creative industries. Boter (2005) has shown
music belongs to hedonic consumption, while the music industry shows many similarities with the
arts and entertainment industry in general. Therefore, these suggestions for future research do not
necessarily have to aim on the music artist, but can also be applied on other “professions” within
the arts and entertainment industry (e.g. movies and books) or a combination of these professions.
Secondly, the interview sample (10) is considerably small, thereby decreasing the theoretical value
of the conclusions that have been made. On the other hand, the nature of explorative research does
not lie in hard conclusions in research reports, but in the discovery of novel data that can be
transformed into theory (Eisenhardt, 1989b; Saunders et al., 2009). Still, this thesis having an
explorative and qualitative nature results in limitations with regard to the conclusions. As a result,
increasing the sample size could potentially strengthen the propositions that have been created.
Thus, this limitation also serves as a suggestion for future research. Additionally, telephone
interviews have shown to be less useful for data analysis, as the data is less “rich” (Gibbert, Ruigrok
and Wicki, 2008) in comparison to the in depth semi-structured interviews. On the other hand, the
telephone interviews have contributed to the aforementioned discoveries, and enabled this thesis to
become what it is now, while it would have been impossible to interview these artists in person
(true to the some artists’ nature of ‘my way or the highway’). Therefore, a suggestion to strengthen
future research can be found in stimulating more artists to participate in face-to-face interviews.
This might be achieved by extensive lobbying by (business) partners of these artists. However,
given the context of the master thesis, this has not been conducted. Additionally, in this case, there
might be the risk of artists stating what is socially desirable instead of providing their own view.
Thirdly, all interviewees have been male. This is partly because of the aforementioned limitation, as
well as due to Dutch female artists being in minority compared to their male counterparts (Fischer,
Rojahn and Struyk, 2002; Rengers, 2001). As a result, it is not possible for this thesis to answer the
research question from a female perspective, which serves as a suggestion for future research.
Fourthly, data richness has been lost in the translation from Dutch to English. The data has been
translated in order to achieve the highest chance of understanding by readers and to ensure fit with
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regard to all other parts of the thesis. This decision has been strengthened by scientific research in a
comparable setting that decided to translate the gathered data as well (Ebbers and Wijnberg, 2009).
However, a consequence of this decision is by translating stories, it is inevitable the data loses some
of the richness it had in the first place. Additionally, this thesis has focused on the Dutch music
industry, which implies the findings only hold for this industry. Similar research needs to be
conducted in the music industry of other countries in order to discover how music artists look at
career success from other contexts.
Fifthly, like many (scientific) fields, the narrative analysis ‘scene’ is still plagued by all kinds of
discussions and concerns about the identification of stories. After all, it is possible the same story
can be seen from the perspective of multiple narrative structures, and the choice of which
perspective is chosen is dependent on the researcher. Additionally, if this thesis would have only
focused on narrative analysis, it would likely have raised eyebrows because of the ‘lenient’
linguistic use throughout the whole thesis. Therefore, narrative analysis has mainly served for
discovery purposes, while the 8-step framework for theory discovery has been chosen in order to
guide this discovery in a systematic manner.
As a result, the concluding suggestion for future research is to test the propositions of chapter VIII
in subsequent research in order to find out whether these propositions will hold. Following this
argument, it is likely additional (empirical deductive) qualitative research on a larger sample is
needed before moving on to different research settings (e.g. subjective career success of other
creative professions or different music industries).
8:70 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONSAlthough the previous paragraph has presented a significant amount of limitations, this thesis has
resulted in both theoretical and practical implications. The most important theoretical implication of
this thesis has been the discovery of the view on (career) success from the perspective of the music
artist. This paragraph will explain why the research setting and the discoveries made in this thesis
contribute to career (success) theory. Additionally, it will be explained in which way this thesis has
contributed to the body of literature concerning social capital and social networks.
Since the 80’s, there have been various scientific endeavors in the arts and entertainment area,
which also includes the music industry. For example, Andreasen and Belk (1980) have tried to
investigate which persons are likely to visit (performing) arts. Hedonic consumption (Hirschman
and Holbrook, 1982) has been investigated by means of investigating information processing and
jazz music complexity (Huber and Holbrook, 1982). Research by Kellaris and Rice (1993) has
shown women tend to react more positively when music is played at a lower volume. Another study
by Holbrook and Schindler (1989) showed age influences the preference for popular music styles.
67
Song variety has been investigated by Ratner, Kahn and Kahneman (1999), which resulted in the
finding that the need for variety just for the sake of variety is so high that consumers tend to pick
less preferred songs, just because these songs are different than other songs. It has been investigated
how young people apply the lyrics and ideology embedded in rock music (Hogg and Banister,
2000). Apart from Baumgartner (1992), who has studied how music triggers emotions, subsequent
research (mainly from the marketing field) focused on what the role is of background music in
relation to retail stores (e.g. Bruner, 1990; Mattila and Wirtz, 2001). These examples of research in
the arts and entertainment area have mainly emerged from the marketing and psychology field,
resulting in some cross-discipline endeavors in the arts and entertainment area. A reason for the
decision to study this field is the accusation that several scientific disciplines are being ‘used’ by big
businesses, as noted by Kassarjian (1980). Another motivation is to see whether the instruments
developed in various disciplines also hold in the arts and entertainment area.
The human resource management discipline aims to study the management of an organization’s
workforce, or the human resources of an organization. This has led to studies in areas, such as
performance management (e.g. Atkins and Wood, 2002), organizational diversity (as further
initiated by Laurent (1986)) and careers (as shown in this thesis). A large majority of all the studies
of the human resource management discipline focuses on the corporation as the research setting,
likely because of the ever-growing amount of existing literature that has used this research setting
within the HR discipline. After all, already developed theory can be further investigated to see
whether the findings of the research holds in different or larger settings (Saunders, Lewiss and
Thornhill, 2009), thereby trying to increase both validity and reliability of the findings over time
(Gibbert, Ruigrok and Wicki, 2008). Compared to other scientific disciplines, the Human Resource
Management discipline’s leap into the world of arts is scarce. Zwaan et al. (2010) argue it is
“surprising to note how little empirical attention has been given to the career development and
career success of creative professions.” (pp. 11), while this is particularly interesting from a
theoretical viewpoint. This thesis has shown career research within the HR discipline has been
devoted to the protean career (Hall, 1996), the enterprising-self (Storey et al., 2005) and the
boundaryless career (Arthur et al., 2005), which all argue that the “traditional” career has shifted
towards a career in which the individual is responsible for his or her own career development.
However, according to Zwaan et al. (2010), the arts can be seen as the so-called “forerunner” in this
new labor market. As a result, discovering how artists perceive their careers and career success is
particularly interesting, as it already provides insight on how individuals perceive the trend to which
the overall labor market is going. Existing quantitative research in a corporate setting aims to
investigate perceived career success by questionnaire items, such as “I am satisfied with the success
that I have achieved in my career” (Eby, Butts and Lockwood, 2003, pp. 695), while this thesis has
68
shown careers and career success are concepts that are perceived differently by individuals.
Therefore, it is relevant to investigate the perspective of the ‘subject’ that the Human Resource
Management discipline aims to study: the human resources of an organization. This thesis has
discovered how these three emerging career concepts and career success are perceived by the
individual in the context of a creative organization (instead of corporation), which serves
subsequent research in the career area within the HR discipline.
Additionally, the insight provided by the social network drawings and the story extracts results in
the implication that although literature on social networks and (social) capital argues networks
should be developed in order to leverage capital (Seibert et al., 2001; Granovetter, 1982;
Krackhardt, 1992), individuals might purposely choose not to do so out of the belief that their own
human and social capital prevails over the human and social capital of other actors. This adds
another perspective to the ever-lasting social capital/social network debate, which has been
presented in Chapter V.
8:80 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Next to theoretical implications, this thesis has resulted in practical implications for any person that
is involved in the music industry, including (aspiring) music artists themselves. Although there is no
agreement on the boundaries of the music industry’s environment, this thesis has provided an up-to-
date overview of the nature of the industry by presenting the debate on what music actually is for
both artist and consumer, while showing potential actors to be encountered within this industry.
Furthermore, this thesis has shown the artists’ acceptance of the music industry’s move towards
“music as a service”, irregardless of whether they agree with this direction taken by the industry. As
a result, this indicates the increasing need for artists to perform as it is the most important means for
survival. Additionally, it has been discovered the task description of artists can comprise more than
composing, producing and recording music. As a result, today’s artists need to possess more skills
than “just” the mastery of their art in order to survive in this industry. The anonymous social
network drawings provide a unique insight of how artists have created their professional network in
relation to their band, which is of practical value to any professional in the industry, while the
variations in the networks indicate the various ‘roads’ these artist have taken.
However, the most important practical implication for artists and managers within the music
industry is the insight in the motivations behind the roads that have been taken by the artists in order
to achieve their success. Practically, this thesis has shown the first objective is to know where to go
as an artist and to ensure this specific vision and philosophy (including the determination of the
artist’s task description) is agreed upon in the artist’s band. Subsequently, the second objective is
the use of both human and social capital in order to gather actors that are willing and able to
69
contribute to attaining this specific vision and philosophy by bringing their capital into the social
network. As this thesis has shown, fulfilling these objectives is easier said than done, but the stories
of the artists have provided a significant amount of examples on how artists achieve their success.
As a result, this thesis’ discoveries on the wide variety of roads can be added to the steadily
increasing body of material (e.g. EHBPO and OngekendTalent) concerning artists (with)in the
Dutch music industry that are traveling the roads to (their) success.
70
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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE (IN DUTCH)• Hoe is de band is ontstaan?• Wat is de huidige formatie van de band? Is dit altijd al zo geweest?• Wat is het doel van de band? Is dit altijd het doel geweest? Hoe probeer je dit doel te
bereiken?• Zie je jezelf/de band als succesvol? Waarom?• Wat houdt je/jullie het meest tegen van succes?• Wat heeft het meest geholpen?• Hoe zie je of iets wat de band doet succesvol is? Hoe wordt succes gemeten voor de band?• Zie je de band als carrière? Waar is deze begonnen? Waar eindigt deze?• Wat is de identiteit van de band? Hoe is deze identiteit ontstaan?• Hoe denk je dat de band zich nog verder kan ontwikkelen?• Wat vind je van de Nederlandse muziekindustrie. Wat is het belangrijkste voor een band in
deze industrie?• Waar denk je aan als het gaat over social networks?• Hoe ziet jullie social network er uit? Is dit altijd zo geweest?• Met welke partijen werken jullie samen? Werkt dit goed? • Welke partijen hebben het meeste bijgedragen aan jullie succes?? • Welke ties zijn sterk? Welke zijn zwak?
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INTERVIEW GUIDE (TRANSLATED)
• How did the band come into existence?• What’s the current band formation? Has this always been the case?• What’s the goal of the band? Has this goal changed over time? How are you trying to reach
this goal?• Do you regard yourself/band as successful? Why?• What’s restraining you from (your) success?• What has helped for you in attaining your success?• How do you see whether the things that are being conducted by the band are regarded as
succesful? Is success being measured?• Do you regard the band as your career? Where did this career start? Where does it end?• What is the band’s identity? How did this identity originate?• What are the points for development for this band?• How do you look at the Dutch music industry? What’s important for a band in this industry?• What comes up in your mind when thinking about social networks?• What does your social network look like? Has this always been the case?• Which parties do you cooperate with? Is this working well?• Which parties contributed to your success?• Which ties are strong? Which ties are weak?
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APPENDIX B: THE CODING “ROUNDS”
“First” Round of Coding (1/2)
First Round Small Adjustments First Round (Translated)
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“First” Round of Coding (2/2)
First Round Small Adjustments First Round (Translated)
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“Second” Round of Coding
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“Third” Round of Coding
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“Fourth” Round of Coding
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APPENDIX C: DUTCH STORY EXTRACTS
Story Extract 1“[...] Ik wilde ook iets nieuws en eh, ik zat op de rockacademie en daar stimuleren ze je heel erg om Nederlands te schrijven. En zo had ik besloten dat ik dat ging doen. Eerst nog een beetje door <eerdere band> heen met, eh, de drummer ook. <Eerdere band>’s drummer en eh, de bassist uit de buurt, <bassist> die er nu ook nog in zit. En eh, <muzikant> van de rockacademie, daar deed ik soms een beetje akkoestische liedjes mee, dus dat was een beetje uitproberen. En, eh, uiteindelijk zouden we gaan opnemen. Waren we met zijn vieren. Dat was toen <eerdere band> uit elkaar was gegaan. We hadden meer tijd voor <de band> en via de contacten van <eerdere band> was er nog wel een openingetje en dan, eh, konden we bij <label> tekenen. Daar gingen we de boel opnemen.”
Story Extract 2“[...] De band is ontstaan doordat twee jongens elkaar kenden en die zijn toen mensen er bij gaan zoeken. Een op de rockacademie, of hoe noem je dat, je mag het nog geen rockacademie noemen, popacademie is het in Rotterdam. [...] En die hebben elkaar daar ontmoet en toen zijn zij op tour gegaan in Frankrijk.”
Story Extract 3“[...] We gingen zo met z’n vieren opnemen en eind 2009, toen was de drummer ziek en de drummer was ook een beetje niet heel erg gemotiveerd. En toen is <boeker>, eh, van <boekingskantoor>, het contract was nog niet helemaal rond en <boeker> was zo boos geworden op hem, <de drummer>, dat hij tegen mij zei: “Ik wil niet meer met die man samenwerken.” En eh, nou ja, dat hebben we, in de meerdere conflicten die hij had met hem zeg maar, en daar omheen speelde hoe hij met alles omging en zo. Ik had zo van, hier heb ik nou vier jaar naar toegewerkt en, eh, toen hebben we een nieuwe drummer gevonden.”
Story Extract 4 “[...] Hij ambieerde ook gewoon wat anders, weet je wel. [...] Hij had ook dingen thuis met zijn meisje, echt settelen, weet je wel. Koophuis, dat had hij al een tijdje, maar zijn vriendin trok het op een gegeven moment niet meer. Hij heeft gekozen voor dat leven, in plaats van het rockleven. Ik had het andere gekozen, maar ja.”
Story Extract 5 “[...] De drummer was ook heel slecht. Dat boterde sowieso al niet. En toen hebben ze besloten om niet met de drummer door te gaan. [...] Helaas is wel de gitarist er aan ten onder gegaan, zeg maar. Zijn broer was de bassist, die stapte ook op. Ook deels door het vele spelen, hoor. We hebben bijna 100 optredens achter de rug, meer zelfs. [...] Ik zag het gewoon, vermoeidheid.”
Story Extract 6“[...] En wij hebben in 2008 een plan gemaakt met <drummer>, een soort tweejaren-plan, gewoon per persoon gezegd wat we wilden bereiken in een jaar en dat hadden we in een half jaar bereikt, weet je wel.”
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Story Extract 7 “[...] Zorg dat de basis goed is en zorg dat met wie je werkt, binnen de band en diegene die ernaast staat of je naasten zijn, dat daar gewoon chemie is en een visie is, identiteit wordt gecreëerd, en imago. Dat je de pijlers om het product, om de band, de muziek, in de markt kan zetten en daar moet je goed weten waar je heen wilt. De koppen één kant op en dat is denk ik stap 1.
Story Extract 8 “[...] Persoonlijk merk ik wel dat ik wel het meest gelukkig ben als ik schrijf. Dus als ik dingen kan maken waar ik zelf tevreden over ben zeg maar. Dat is al een hele opgave, maar ik denk zo lang dat doorgaat zal <band> ook bestaan en dan wat zichtbaarder of wat minder zichtbaar. [...] Het is bij mij heel makkelijk gegaan. Bij <eerdere band> was het echt, we hadden een CD zelf gemaakt en toen, toen werd meteen de eerste single een hit, dat ging echt snel, boem! [...] En dan komt [band] en dan lijkt het allemaal moeilijker.”
Story Extract 9 “[...] Het doel is spelen wat we nu doen, in kleinere en grotere theaterzalen. En het doel is voor mij dat de zaal helemaal vol komt en dat je dat jaren achter elkaar kan doen.”
Story Extract 10 “[...] Identiteit is iets wat wij zelf zien en we willen iets naar buiten laten zien en dat is het imago. [...] Identiteit is dat we hele sterke samenwerkende groep zijn met allemaal verschillende kwaliteiten. We hebben binnen de bandleden, naast dat ze bandlid zijn, dat ze allemaal hun specifieke inbreng hebben qua extern product. [Over imago] [...] Een fucking hete live band, unstoppable. Ook best wel kloten denk ik. Niet op onze mond gevallen in interviews en wat we zijn. We durven ook wel wat en we durven op de juiste momenten gas te geven. Ik denk dat we heel benaderbaar zijn. [...] Iedereen mag doen wat die wil, welke keuze die ook maakt, maar wij proberen wel heel benaderbaar te blijven en toegankelijk te zijn. [...] Ook dat je het idee hebt dat je je één voelt met de band. Dat doen we al vanaf het moment dat we begonnen waren en nu hopen we ook dat als we op een podium staan waar 10.000 mensen staan, dan proberen we nog steeds een soort van, het idee van, ik sta naast ze. Dat proberen we te bereiken en dat is imago-wise. En we proberen een chille, relaxte uitstraling te hebben. [...] Dat is het imago, als jij dat ook oppakt en dat willen we en dat horen we meer, dat is cool. Daar hebben we voor gekozen. Dat is imago-wise. Dat is wel een uitvergroting van identiteit, die dingen. We gaan niet in zwarte pakken en zonnebrillen op het podium staan, want dan draai je dingen om en sta je niet als jezelf en daar hebben we voor gekozen. [...] Dat is de vertaling van je identiteit.”
Story Extract 11 “[...] Nee, we hebben wel zoiets, we doen alles voor de band. Democratie is echt ook een identiteit voor ons. We doen echt alles samen. Als iemand zegt: “Hier sta ik niet achter.”, of, “Deze promo moet in een geel jasje met een parkiet op zijn kop, dat vind ik niks.”, vier zeggen, “Dat is te gek.”, en één vindt dat niet, dan doen we het niet. Iedereen moet met wat we doen zich er fijn bij voelen. [...] De basis is dat we elkaar heel erg vertrouwen qua identiteit, maar ook donders goed weten waar we heen willen en ook donders goed weten wat voor een soort muziek we willen maken. Heel erg ontwikkelen.”
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Story Extract 12“[...] En ondertussen, het is heel simpel. We hebben wel met elkaar bedacht, wat willen we zijn als band en dat kwam er eigenlijk op neer, we willen gewoon een feest zijn. We willen niet hoogdravend zijn.”
Story Extract 13“[...] Hij zorgt dat iedereen hem kent en dat hij er een band mee heeft. Gisteren zaten we in het theater in Helmond, was onlangs afgebrand en dan spreken we daarna met die directeur en dan merk ik toch altijd dat hij probeert in het gesprek een, eh, iets, iets gemeenschappelijks er over te krijgen. [...] Altijd als je op de plek bent waar je het van moet hebben, altijd even een gesprekje met de directeur, altijd de namen van de technici weten. Van die hele kleine dingetjes. Gewoon even in je iPhone opschrijven en volgende keer, “O ja, werkt hij hier niet meer?”. Van die kleine dingetjes.”
Story Extract 14“[...] Ik denk zoals <bevriende band> had dat ook in het begin. Speelden allemaal kleine podia. En al die kleine dingen gingen ze af. En pas op gegeven moment ging het echt door. Ik hoop dat dat bij ons ook zo gaat, dat ze in het begin een beetje zitten van, “Haha”, maar dat het dan gaat van, “He, ken je dat bandje uit <bandplaats>?” En dat we dan zo een beetje in de spotlight komen.”
Story Extract 15“[...] De industrie, ik weet niet zo goed eigenlijk wat ik daar verder op moet zeggen. Ik weet dat het een klein groepje is wat alles bepaalt. Ik weet niet eens of dat slecht is. [...] Kan frustrerend zijn als het voor jou niet goed uitpakt. En het kan heel erg prima zijn. Alleen het is een beetje, het wordt allemaal veiliger, denk ik. De toegankelijke versies van wat in Amerika groot is, behalve dan bepaalde sub-genres, die weer niet.”
Story Extract 16“[...] Ik heb niet een eenduidige kijk erop. Je hebt ze hard nodig als je structureel succes wilt, denk ik. Ik vind wel, dat is puur omdat wij links zijn laten liggen door die industrie. Ik vind ze wel elitair op een bepaalde manier. Zij bepalen wat er gebeurt en wat niet. Dat is een vrij smal spectrum waar je door naar binnen moet glippen.”
Story Extract 17“[...] Ik vind het heel erg op het Westen gericht en heel erg, als ik het vergelijk met België, wat ik daar van weet, is dat er in Nederland veel, hmm, hoe moet ik dat zeggen. Er is, er zijn een aantal toppers in Nederland. Die kunnen er goed van boeren. Daaronder is een [...] hele boel subtop, ja, die er niks mee kan en het lijkt wel alsof er niet echt een middengroep is. [...] En dat wordt volgens mij heel erg in stand gehouden door de media. Die scheiding. En dat maakt het ook moeilijk om zeg maar je brood er mee te verdienen. Als je bij die top wil gaan horen. Volgens mij is die indeling hier volgens mij veel scherper dan in andere landen. Waar je ook met eigen werk gerust, als je een beetje naam hebt kun je er van leven.”
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Story Extract 18“[...] Ik vind het wel mooi om te zien dat wij op eigen kracht de zalen kunnen uitverkopen en de CD kunnen verkopen zonder dat we worden gedraaid. Dat vind ik wel een mooie middelvinger. [...] We zijn een van de bands die het meeste zelf opereert geloof ik in Nederland en dat is natuurlijk niet zonder reden. Ik bedoel, labels staan vaak met hun handje op om geld te vangen en doen heel weinig, weet je wel. Niemand werkt zo hard voor je band als je zelf doet. Ik verbaas me ook vaak over dingen. Wat wel gedraaid wordt en wat niet gedraaid wordt op de radio. Wat kan ik er nog meer over zeggen?”
Story Extract 19“[...] Eigenlijk zitten we in het moeilijkste land. De markt is erg verdeeld. In Engeland is het de normaalste zaak van de wereld om Lady Gaga als voorprogramma neer te zetten van Queen, je weet wel. Een programma als dat is in Holland, is in Nederland volstrekt ondenkbaar. Dat is echt bizar, dat maak ik nergens in de wereld mee. Ik heb ook in Amerika gezeten. Dat is misschien het moeilijkste voor <de band>.”
Story Extract 20“[...] Wat ik van de Nederlandse industrie vind. Het is hoe het is. Het is niet de muziekindustrie, maar meer de afzetmarkt die zo is en daar kan je producten voor maken. Ik denk dat ik het vanuit de muzikanten wel tof vind wat ze doen, alleen als ik naar een ander klimaat kijk, zeker naar Duitsland, Engeland en Amerika, daar wordt hoogwaardiger muziek gemaakt. In ieder geval het volk luistert hoogwaardiger muziek. [...] Nederland heeft gewoon bepaalde roots waardoor je ziet dat bijvoorbeeld Nick en Simon dubbel platina verkopen. Je ziet dat Rene Froger voordat hij één single uitgebracht heeft al goud heeft. Dat is gewoon het Nederlandse publiek. Het ligt niet zozeer aan de muziekindustrie, er zijn mensen die er ook van moeten leven. Op een gegeven moment gaat de hele muziekindustrie zich daar ook op instellen. Je kan voor heel veel geld een nieuw talent in de markt zetten, maar als het niet bij het grote publiek aansluit dan houdt het een beetje op.”
Story Extract 21“[...] Ik zou graag willen dat het mijn carrière was, want ik moet nu nog gewoon wel gitaarles geven. [...] Ik ben wel zo realistisch dat het alleen maar was, als ik ooit zeg maar alleen uit muziek maken mijn inkomen zal verdienen, dan zal dat zijn doordat ik per ongeluk een hit heb geschreven voor iemand anders. Daar kun je nog wel eens wat aan verdienen, denk ik. En misschien voor een reclamedeuntje, dat soort dingen en dat je daarin bezig blijft.”
Story Extract 22“[...] Ik ben er niet ingeklommen omdat ik carrière wilde maken. Ik heb muziekmanagement gestudeerd aan de HKU en in die tijd heb ik bij <andere band> tourmanagement gedaan, een onderdeel van de tour crew. [...] En toen management <andere band #2> heel kort gedaan en stage <label> gedaan bij de marketingafdeling en toen eigenlijk had ik wel een aantal facetten gezien. Alle kanten wel een beetje gezien. Ik kan mij niet identificeren met muziek die mij niet raakt. Ik heb wel een idee dat ik weet hoe het moet en daar ben ik best wel eigenwijs in. Ik ga het gewoon proberen. <de band>, drie jaar geleden mee begonnen en uitgebouwd tot wat het nu is. Gaandeweg geleerd en ontwikkeld en het is voor mij nog steeds een leerproces. Ik kom nog steeds nieuwe
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dingen tegen, het buitenland, dat is voor mij eigenlijk nieuw. [...] Ik doe het uit liefde, zeg maar, want ik verdien er ook niet genoeg aan, ik kan er niet van leven.”
Story Extract 23“[...] Ja, we proberen nu al anderhalve week via de mail een afspraak te maken om met z’n vieren bij elkaar te komen. Dat is ook nieuw. Vroeger moest alles wijken voor de band, vriendinnetjes, verjaardagen, alles. We moesten repeteren, vier keer in de week of zo. Maar dat is nu wel anders. Onze gitarist krijgt een kindje. Anderen hebben trouwplannen. Dat zijn wel dingen.”
Story Extract 24“[...] Ik doe ook Nederlands danstheater. Dat zijn ook best grote dingen. Hele opera’s en toestanden. We sparen ook echt. We doen ook kleine opdrachtjes daarnaast. We hebben ook een promo voor Nike, zeg maar, daar verdienen we ook weer geld mee. Dat zijn allemaal omzeilingen. En dat douwen we in een pot en op die manier redden we het.”
Story Extract 25“[...] Alles wat ik doe is onderdeel van mijn carrière. Zo zie ik dat wel.”
Story Extract 26“[...] Ik doe full time mee. Het zal niet snel een vetpot zijn. Je hebt de WIK gewoon nog, dat is wel heel fijn dat dat kan en op die manier kan je wel heel hard werken. Toen we eerst onze plaat opnamen, <albumtitel>, zaten we allemaal op school en werk, en deden we alles in de avonduurtjes. En ook de plaat opnemen. Na school gingen die de eerste partij spelen en de volgende dag weer een andere. Dat is kut. Nu gaan we gewoon drie weken lang met z’n allen zitten zodat je echt met z’n allen ergens aan werkt.”
Story Extract 27“[...] Twee clips. We wilden twee clips maken. Dat was wel tof dat we dat konden doen. En toen kwam eerst <single> uit, maar dat was pas eind oktober of zo denk ik. Uiteindelijk zijn het wel grote, grote, bescheiden internethitjes geweest, geworden. [...] Uiteindelijk zijn we meer [over de miljoen] keer bekeken op het internet.”
Story Extract 28“[...] Want je staat op een Lowlands en je ziet daar die Charly tent helemaal uit elkaar barsten, zeg maar. [...] Dat is helemaal tof en dat is meer waard dan 1000 euro op je bankrekening. In ieder geval voor mij en dat is bij ons ook de drijfveer geweest, geld is niet de drijfveer, het is mooi als het erbij komt, als het lukt, en het gaat steeds beter.”
Story Extract 29“[...] Ik kan mij herinneren dat we de leukste shows hebben gehad op de plekken waar je het niet verwachtte. In de Eagle in Bavlo, heb je daar ooit van gehoord? [...] Nee, wij ook niet, tot we er kwamen, dat was helemaal in Noord-Groningen waar nooit een band komt, dus als er een band komt in het dorp dan is het gelijk een happening. Dus ze gingen kapot.”
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Story Extract 30“[...] We gaan alleen leuke shows doen. Dat sowieso. Het zal je nog verbazen hoe vaak we gewoon serieus op basis van het stomme hitje in 2005 nog mailtjes krijgen of we komen spelen en dat soort dingen. Best wel veel. Niet alles doen we meer. [...] Giel Beelen pikte het op en TMF. Die clip deed ook wel wat stof opwaaien. Dat was wel een onschuldig clipje, maar het deed wel wat en kwam ook in de dag top 5 en dat soort dingen.”
Story Extract 31“[...] Ze speelden tijdens de popronde, speelden ze een nummer met een soort percussie ding en dan ging <zanger> in zijn eentje op de bar staan en deed hij de microfoon in zijn broekzak en zei; stil iedereen. En dan ging hij heel zachtjes zingen [...] en dan ging de hele zaal meezingen, maar dat was akoestisch. En toen zei <zanger> tegen mij, dat was het eerste moment dat ik dacht dat er iets aparts was aan de hand, die zei, “We staan nu in Paradiso, kan ik dat dan ook doen in de grote zaal?” “Nee, dat kan niet, want die mensen horen je niet.” “Maar dan zing ik wat harder. Ik wil het akoestisch doen en dat heel Paradiso meezingt.” Ik zei, “Dat moet je niet doen, je bent gestoord als je het doet.” Toen zei hij, “Maar als alles toch mislukt, maakt het toch niet uit en heb ik het in ieder geval gedaan.” “Ja, dan moet je het doen. Als hierna je carrière over is, en dit was voor jou een mooi moment, dan moet je het doen.” “Dan doe ik het.” Dus die is met een barkruk als voorprogramma, is hij met die kruk het podium afgesprongen. Hij ging op die barkruk staan, hij deed demonstratief zijn draadloze microfoon uit, stopte hij in zijn kontzak, en toen deed hij dit. Paradiso was uitverkocht, vol. Ik ben naar de bar gelopen, “Doe mij maar een fles vodka.” Dit is het einde. En hij deed 1 keer dit met zijn armen en iedereen was stil. En toen begon hij normaal zachtjes te zingen. Eerste rij mee, tweede rij mee, heel Paradiso stond mee te zingen. En toen knalden de drums erin en toen hoorde ik een hoop mensen, “Ik heb gewoon kippenvel.” En daarna kwam de programmeur van Paradiso, die was vanuit zijn hokje naar beneden gesleurd door de techniek. Dit moet je meemaken wat die flikt. En nogmaals, als het nu allemaal mislukt met die band, vind ik het ook best. Ze hebben wel een paar hele stoere grapjes uitgehaald. Dat is wel echt uniek.”
Story Extract 32“[...] Daar bijvoorbeeld, de blogposts die we bijhouden op de blog eigenlijk. Dat zijn voor ons hele fijne zelfreflectiepunten, dat je gewoon harde resultaten ziet. Of het nieuws over het vertrek van <zanger>, <website>, en alle dingen waar het op is geplaatst, NU.nl, RTL boulevard, weet je wel en DWDD die dan gelijk belt, dat zijn mooie dingen. En de tour ook. [...] En bijvoorbeeld het album, dat hebben we helemaal zelf betaald. De eerste week hadden we er 1500 van verkocht en dus weer helemaal terugverdiend.”
Story Extract 33“[...] Ik bedoel, we weten allemaal dat het heel leuk is om met elkaar te spelen, en als je het op de schaal van spelen bekijkt is het redelijk lucratief om te doen.[I: Want, daarmee bedoel je te zeggen, dat je relatief veel verdient voor hoe veel tijd je er in stopt?]Ja, bijvoorbeeld, ik betaal geen promotiemateriaal, ik betaal geen CD, geen licht, geen zaal. Behalve dan de SENA.”
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Story Extract 34“[...] Succes is relatief. Wat is succes? Is succes het feit dat je doet wat je leuk vindt en je speelt één keer in de week of één keer in de maand, als je dat succes vindt en je vindt het leuk, en je tilt een tent op zijn kant, kan dat het ding zijn wat je doet en daar kan je heel blij mee zijn en dat kan je succesvol vinden.”
Story Extract 35“[...] Je moet eerst je boundaries stellen, wat is succes? De boundaries die wij er op stellen en die ik ook met mijn band stel, is dat je het levensvatbaar maakt. Dat je er van kan leven. Het levensvatbaar maken is dus dat je kan leven van muziek. Dat is in deze tijd best lastig. Je ziet dat er enkelen zijn in Nederland die dat kunnen. We zijn aan tafel gaan zitten zoals wij nu ook zitten en hebben gezegd van, “Hier staan we, hier moeten we heen.” Dat is Noorderslag, Lowlands, artistieke ontwikkeling, live ontwikkelingen, alle facetten besproken en in een plan vastgelegd en ieder jaar bijgestuurd en zo de weg naar ons eigen succes bewandeld.”
Story Extract 36“[...] Als we als doelstelling hebben dat we er van kunnen leven, nee, dan zijn we nog geen succesvolle band. In de ogen van het publiek die al lang denken dat wij, je merkt nu dat er gillende meisjes vooraan komen staan en ik denk in hun ogen zijn het [de band] nieuwe sterren, ik weet niet hoe je het moet zeggen, het zijn gewoon mensen die het te gek vinden, laten we het zo maar noemen, want sterren zijn we nog niet, maar die mensen die hebben het idee dat deze band wel heel hard gaat in de media.”
Story Extract 37“[...] Succes ligt ook niet alleen of je er van kan leven. Dat moet ik even bijschaven, want het is ook de beleving. Je kan van 9 tot 5 ergens op kantoor de hele dag typen, maar je kan ook met iets bezig zijn wat rock and roll is eigenlijk. Dat is ook wat je stimuleert en bezig houdt. Je bent met mensen bezig, je bent met muziek bezig, je genereert een mooi product en daar wil je ook part of zijn en dat is ook onderdeel van het succes genereren, want je staat op een Lowlands en je ziet daar die Charly tent helemaal uit elkaar barsten, zeg maar. [...] Hoe hoger je de pijler zet, hoe langer het succes uitblijft.”
Story Extract 38“[...] Nou, dat vind ik heel moeilijk. Kijk, succesvolle bands zijn bands die al tien jaar succes hebben. En eh, dat het dan best wel makkelijk is. Je hebt bijvoorbeeld <andere band>. Die waren heel veel gedraaid op 3FM. Dat is een succesvolle band zeg maar, grote hit en zo. Maar ja, goed. Er is nou weer een nieuwe 3FM serious talent en ik bedoel, ja, ok, het is allemaal heel relatief. [...] Succes is denk ik wel dat je op de geijkte podia staat en dat je CD wordt verkocht. We hebben op de Zwarte Cross gestaan, dat was heel leuk. Misschien zaten we op ons best een beetje in de sub-top zeg maar. Wat ik zelf ervaar als succes, dat zal toch zijn, eh, die eerste drie maanden dat alles leek te gebeuren zeg maar. Dus dan sta je op Noorderslag en je CD presenteren bij Michiel Veenstra. En bij Giel en zo. Dan heb je het idee, nu staan wij, ja, nu gaat het gebeuren en dan shows en zo dat het heel erg aanslaat. Dat zijn dingen van succes.”
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Story Extract 39“[...] Ik denk heel vaak terug aan wat we hebben bereikt en alleen als je zo’n tour hebt gedaan zoals wij hebben gedaan, dat is echt een moment dat we allemaal echt zaten van, “What the fuck!” We verkopen helemaal op eigen kracht Tivoli en Paradiso uit. Dan vind ik wel dat je succes hebt. Maar ik denk dat succes ook wel op een lager stadium succes te noemen valt, weet je wel. Ik vind het een hele prestatie als 5 jongens die een paar jaar muziek maken dat soort dingen bereiken en ook als je in de winkels ligt, alleen al. Vind ik ook echt een momentje van, “Wow.” [...] Dat we door <andere band> gevraagd zijn om die support tour te doen, dat was eigenlijk ook al succes te noemen. Zij vonden ons dus cool en wij konden daar gewoon 16 keer spelen in 2 maanden, weet je wel. Dat noem ik ook al succes. Ik denk dat als we straks op Lowlands staan dan is het nog meer succes. En als de tweede plaat er komt en nog beter als de eerste is.”
Story Extract 40“[...] Het maffe is wel dat ik heel veel bands heb geproduceerd en geënsceneerd. Ik heb zelfs met <andere artiest>, <andere artiest> en weet ik veel allemaal gewerkt. Maar ik deed altijd mijn dingetje en ik was weg. Maar ik heb ook tegen de band gezegd, ik word jullie manager, ik zorg in ieder geval dat je die platenmaatschappij-ellende niet hebt. Maar dan deel ik wel mee. Als alles mislukt, hebben we allemaal geen reet verdiend. Dan hebben we een jaar lang gewerkt, maar als het lukt deel ik ook mee, dat is de deal. [...] De band heeft al 10 maanden hebben we salaris. 1000 euro per maand gewoon. Ze hebben allemaal een huur van 200 euro, dat soort bedragen. [Wanneer kwam dat besef, van goh, dit is niet gewoon een plaat opnemen?] Toen <zanger> in Paradiso in het het voorprogramma van <andere band> dat flinkte met die microfoon toen.”
Story Extract 41I: Laten we even gaan naar het onderwerp social networks. Weet je wat het zijn? [...]R: De Facebook, de Twitter en de Hyves en zo, toch?
Story Extract 42I: Waar denk je aan als het gaat over social networks? R: Dat is gewoon standaard Twitter, dat is voor ons de core business. [...] Dat is ook het makkelijkste. Je bereikt heel veel mensen op een makkelijke manier. Gewoon lekker kort, geen gelul.
Story Extract 43“[...] Dit is het centrum en dat is <de band>. <eigen naam>, dit is wat we doen. Hier zit een label in. Hier zit management in. [...] Hier zitten de ideeën in. De communicatie, de PR, dit is het epicentrum, alles wat we doen. [...] Wat heel dichtbij ons staat is onze familie. En dat is eigenlijk de crew. [...] En wat is belangrijk bij crew: 1) dat het mensen met een hart zijn, dat het bij ons past, dat is criteria nummer 1, 2) is kunnen ze ook nog wat en 3) is wat moet het kosten. En dat eerste is het belangrijkste en daar ga je naar op zoek. Mensen die personality hebben en de liefde en hetzelfde uitdragen waar wij hier mee werken. Die mensen proberen we erbij te zoeken. <boekingskantoor>’s <boeker> heeft dat heel erg. Ik heb dat bij <naam> gevoeld. <distributeur> is iets zakelijker, maar dat is ook wat zij doen. Ze maken niks, ze zetten alleen iets, hup, in de markt. Dat is helemaal cool. Plugger is ook iets zakelijker, maar dat is ook wat hij doet. Maar hij moet het wel met onze filosofie doen, daar kan je op aansturen. [...] Verder heb je gewoon je eigen uitingen.
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Dat is je PR via sociale media en je eigen offline fysieke netwerk, de krant tot de blog, zeg maar, wat zij ook doen hebben we ook zelf. En daar heb je ook weer 1 op 1 relaties mee. Dit is een beetje hoe het rolt, volgens mij. [...]”
Story Extract 44“[...] We laten niet zo snel mensen toe tot ons sociaal netwerk. We hebben eigenlijk alleen <boeker/manager>, <producer> en <boeker>, de boeker. [Over de distributeur] Weet je wat het is? Die gasten moeten één ding doen en dat is het naar de fucking winkels brengen, dus maakt mij geen reet uit. [Over publishers] [...] Zonde om een derde van je geld aan te geven. [...] Niemand werkt zo hard voor je band als je zelf doet.”
Story Extract 45“[...] Dus het leek serieus te worden. Toen had ik iets van, we kunnen twee dingen doen. Of je gaat naar een platenmaatschappij, alleen jullie zeggen dat je er van wil leven. Ik denk niet dat bij een platenmaatschappij je de komende twee jaar daar aan toe komt, want er worden heel veel kosten gemaakt en de deals zijn vaak heel pittig momenteel. Je bent alles kwijt. [...] En toen heb ik aan <vriendin> gevraagd, de band wil gewoon zo snel mogelijk lekker geld verdienen, althans, niet zo zeer rijk worden, maar er van leven. Dus financieel moeten we een plannetje maken. Ik wil geen platendeal dat alles in 1 pakket zit. Ik wil alles los, ik wil een losse boeker, een losse uitgever, een losse plugger, een losse PR-man, zodat we nergens belangenverstrengeling hebben. En toen ben ik liedjes gaan schrijven. Ondertussen meldden alle partijen zich. En toen heb ik de keuze gemaakt om met <boekingskantoor> in zee te gaan, die hadden al een heel pakketje voor ons klaar, maar dat wilde ik niet, behalve <publisher>, de uitgever. Omdat zij ook heel veel contacten, independents, in Amerika hebben, als enige. Als je voor Sony Nederland tekent, komt je nooit bij Sony Amerika terecht. Die werken niet samen. Maar als je een independent hebt die zijn eigen werk in het buitenland doet, dan kom je er wel. Daar is <publisher> wat mij betreft de beste keuze in. Die plugger, ik wilde <PR>, een hele goede pr-vrouw, die wilde ik hebben. En zo hebben we geshopt.”
Story Extract 46“[...] In die periode maakten we een demo’tje en die viel heel erg goed bij LiveXS en toen hebben we ook in Paradiso bovenzaaltje mogen spelen als demo van de maand of hoe noemen ze dat daar. En toen werden we geselecteerd voor de finale van de VARA bandcompetitie, dat was een bandwedstrijd. De VARA had toen een programma over bands en daar hadden ze een wedstrijd aan hangen en daar werden we voor geselecteerd en die wonnen we ook. Het was op dezelfde avond als die Paradiso avond. [...] Dan voel je je geweldig. En toen kwamen we via mijn stage, ik deed journalistiek en liep ik stage bij een mediabedrijfje, kwam ik met een jongen in aanraking die een reclamebureau had en die daar voor de grap ook een labeltje aan had gehangen. En die benaderde ik of hij iets met ons kon. En dat resulteerde in dat zij een clip gingen maken voor <single> toen. En dat ontplofte toen helemaal en we hadden echt onze fifteen minutes of fame, zeg maar. Toen hebben we ook echt veel gespeeld dat jaar er na. [...] Dat kwam voor ons ook behoorlijk uit het niks, hoor. Het sloeg helemaal nergens op. We begonnen met zo’n klein stukje in de plaatselijke krant, <krant>. Daar stond een stukje in: Popband bedreigt om <single>. Daar moesten we wel een beetje om lachen eigenlijk. De volgende dag stond er zo’n artikel in de Telegraaf. En toen het in de Telegraaf stond, toen had ik die ochtend de redactie van Giel aan de lijn of de ochtend daarop, of
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we in zijn programma wilden komen. En DWDD, RTL Boulevard, alles pakte dat toen op. Dat was supertof. En toen hadden we, dat was wel grappig, platenmaatschappijen hebben er niet echt veel kaas van gegeten, want het begon net, die hadden 1000 singles ingekocht en die waren, in 2005, toen was downloaden wel aan de orde, maar niet zo grootschalig als nu, toen verkocht je nog fysiek singles en na die eerste 1000; nou dat ging snel. Toen hebben ze er 3000 besteld en daar hebben we nu er nog 2700 van. [...] Er was niet een vervolg. Het hield niet aan. Er was niemand uit de industrie die er op dook of zo. Toen hebben we nog een paar singles gemaakt in samenwerking met die club en <single> is wel opgepikt door TMF, die is nog wel een week of acht gedraaid en toen was het ook klaar daarmee. Toen in 2007, [...] onze gitarist had een workshop van een producer. Die kende wel de klappen van de zweep en die vond ons leuk. Toen zijn we daar een aantal jaren mee aan het werk geweest. Bij elke platenmaatschappij gezeten, maar niemand hapte, eigenlijk net <andere band> die eigenlijk een groot deel van de inspiratie uit <de band> heeft gehaald, zeg maar, die hebben nu hetzelfde probleem omdat het heel lastig in een vakje te plaatsen is. [...]Je schrijft mensen aan met e-mails naar programmeurs van zalen. Dat moet voor dit werk nog gebeuren, maar dat was wel, maar ook veel bellen. Gewoon bellen. [...] Andere programmeurs vinden het ergerlijk, merk je ook wel. Dan ga je snel over op de mail, voordat het contact naar de kloten is. Meestal hoor je van die ook weinig terug.”
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APPENDIX D: SOCIAL NETWORK DRAWINGS
Social Network A
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Social Network B
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Social Network C
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Social Network D
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Social Network E
99
Social Network F
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Social Network G
101
Social Network H
102
Social Network I
103
Social Network J
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