This website was launched as part of ‘Online networks and the production of value in electronic music’: a six-month research collaboration between the Open University and King’s College London, with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The six months have passed, and we are now based between the University of the West of England, the Open University and the University of Kent, but we’re still here and still researching!

Using a combination of observation, interviewing, and large-scale harvesting and analysis of public data, we are studying the ways in which professional, semi-professional, and amateur music-makers use the internet to produce value for their own and one another’s work. Although we have focused primarily on the SoundCloud website and on London’s electronic music scene, our findings have broader application, contributing to understanding of the relationship between peer esteem and commercial success both in the music industry and in the cultural industries more generally.

Our findings are shared not only through academic venues but also through our blog, a public event featuring talks from researchers who have carried out related studies and performances by musicians involved in the research. Audiovisual podcasts, a public report, and a scholarly journal article will form a permanent record of our research.