China's 'mass-line' music development in the digital age: a study of the online music ecosystem and the diverse values of users, internet platforms, and the state

The digital revolution has significantly transformed the music sector over the past two decades, enhancing accessibility for the general public, music lovers, and musicians alike. China presents a compelling case, where its socialist mass-line heritage has incorporated market elements to develop unique characteristics. In China, significant capital investment and regulatory efforts have been poured into a licensed digital music sector, making it the fifth largest music market worldwide. Despite extremely low revenue generated by paid users in China, stakeholder engagement in music development and consumption continues to surge. This raises intriguing questions, such as what has been motivating users, artists, firms, and the state to actively engage and support this development despite the lack of profitability? What are the distinctive features of China's music ecosystem? This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach by examining the multiplicity of values created through the development of digital music beyond firm-centric economic impact. The research explores the development trajectory, values, and dynamic relationships of actors within China's digital music sector to provide a comprehensive understanding of China's distinctive mass-line music development in the digital era: The people-centered digital music value ecosystem emphasizes mass music participation of prosumers, the traffic-seeking and datafication activities of digital music platforms, as well as the economic visions and socialist ideology promoted by the state. To contextualize the topic, the research investigates the historical trajectory and development of China's music sector, tracing its evolution from the emergence of the modern recording industry to the current era of platform-based mass music prosumption, while emphasizing on the interplay of cultural, economic, and political forces. The research takes an interdisciplinary approach, integrating its theoretical framework from key concepts in Value Chain, Value Co-creation, Cultural Value, and Popular Music studies, while drawing insights from Ecosystem Studies and Actor-Network Theory to address the complex nature of value and networked value co-creation of actors in China's digital music development. Multiple in-depth case studies are employed to examine two distinctive cases of mass-line music development: Online Gufeng music, a youth music culture influenced by ancient Chinese music, and the music prosumption by elderly users on the mobile karaoke platform WeSing. After an intensive data collection on both secondary data and semi-structured interviews, the result uncover the unique development trajectory of China's digital music, shedding light on the active participation, interaction, and value co-creation among various actors and forces, including the mass participatory culture of users, the corporate commercialization process of firms, and the regulatory policies implemented by policymakers. Drawing from the case findings and cross-case analysis, the thesis contributes empirically by examining the multiplicity of value creation among actors at individual, organizational, and governance levels. It proposes the model of China's Digital Music Value Ecosystem, emphasizing the co-creation, negotiation, and appropriation of value among actors, with technology playing a mediating role. The research enhances the theoretical understanding of value by conceptualizing its variable, relational, and contextual nature. Overall, the study provides valuable insights for policymakers, industry players, and researchers, enhancing understanding of the unique development process and underlying context, complexity of values, dynamics of actors, and how these factors shaped today's digital music sector in China

Artificial Intelligence - Intelligent Art? Human-Machine Interaction and Creative Practice

As algorithmic data processing increasingly pervades everyday life, it is also making its way into the worlds of art, literature and music. In doing so, it shifts notions of creativity and evokes non-anthropocentric perspectives on artistic practice. This volume brings together contributions from the fields of cultural studies, literary studies, musicology and sound studies as well as media studies, sociology of technology, and beyond, presenting a truly interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art picture of the transformation of creative practice brought about by various forms of AI

Service Futures, Proceedings of the fourth Service Design and Service Innovation Conference

ServDes2014 explores how Service Design is contributing to ‘Service Futures’ and how it is developing as a field of research and practice. We have witnessed how the concept and role of services in the economy and society have come a long way since its first definitions and studies. Services have moved from being a peripheral activity in a manufacturing - centred economy; to an engine for growth and society driven innovation. This transformation has been fully recognised with a flourishing of service innovation and service research studies aimed at deepening understanding; and at supporting the development of services both as a sector and as a concept. We suggest that Service Design is closely following this transformation. Starting from its initial focus on service interactions and experiences; Service Design research and practice have entered more strategic and transformational roles; dealing with issues of organisational change; system design; sustainability and social change; amongst others. Increasingly; Service Design is considering ways to integrate and collaborate with other service related disciplines. Also; questions are emerging on the future of this field; considering the growing areas of application and the expansion of the concept of service itself. ServDes2014 has brought these recent discussions and transformations to the fore and offered an ideal place to collectively reflect on and imagine that future. ServDes.2014 ran over three days: The first day was dedicated to practical explorations of Service Design with eight workshops led by both practitioners and academics; The second day was mostly focused on (long and short) papers presentations organised in three parallel sessions and two extra workshops; The third and final day was partly dedicated to papers presentation and came to an end with three parallel forums exploring the future of Service Design Research and Education and their relationship with Social Innovation. Working at the boundaries of Service Design; Digital and Social Innovation; the keynote speaker Dominic Campbell (Futuregov); projected novel spaces and responsibilities for Service Design in relation to complex societal transformational challenges; while Prof. Pelle Ehn (Malmö University); positioned it within a historical retrospective of Participatory Design in a constant search for more democratic (service) design practices. The conference was organised around five main themes which are reflected in the proceedings structure: Emerging Directions for Service Design; Design for Service Innovation and Transformation; Service Design and Implementation; Novel Service Design Frameworks and Tools; Service Design Across Organisations. Thanks to everyone who contributed and participated to this conference; and we look forward ServDes.2016 further developments and ideas

The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption

This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas