Disintermediation effects on independent approaches to music business

In the aftermath of the digital revolution, business models are changing and disintermediation is impacting the music economy. In these circumstances, we observe the widespread claim that music artists are able to successfully reach the market on their own, leveraging access to networked global communications and the use of digital network media as a means of production. This paper argues such arguments feed on the ideals of independence in the context of an experimental and transitional stage that the music industry is currently undergoing, and that may be part of a recurrent cycle leading to the establishment of a new generation of intermediaries.