2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This 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
3. TRACKLIST
I.
INTRO
pp. 1
1:10
RESEARCH QUESTION
pp. 3
1:20
SUB-QUESTIONS
pp. 3
1:30
SETLIST
pp. 3
II.
CAREER SUCCESS
pp. 4
2:10
INTRODUCTION
pp. 4
2:20
CAREERS
pp. 4
2:30
THE PROTEAN CAREER
pp. 5
2:40
CAREER SUCCESS
pp. 7
2:41
OBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS INDICATORS
pp. 8
2:42
SUBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS INDICATORS
pp. 8
2:50
CONCLUSION
pp. 9
III.
INTERLUDE: THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY
pp. 10
3:10
INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN GENERAL
pp. 10
3:20
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. 17
4:20
WHAT ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS?
pp. 17
4:30
THE MAIN CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL NETWORK RESEARCH
pp. 19
4:40
CONCLUSION
pp. 20
V.
SUCCESS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
pp. 21
5:10
INTRODUCTION
pp. 21
5:21
SOCIAL CAPITAL
pp. 21
5:22
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. 24
6:20
THE 8-STEP BLUEPRINT TO THEORY DISCOVERY
pp. 24
6:30
NARRATIVE ANALYSIS
pp. 27
6:40
THE CODING PROCESS
pp. 28
4. VII.
RESULTS OF DATAANALYSIS
pp. 30
7:10
BAND
pp. 30
7:11
BAND ORIGINATION
pp. 30
7:12
CURRENT FORMATION OF THE BAND
pp. 32
7:13
GOAL OF THE BAND
pp. 33
7:14
BAND IDENTITY AND BAND IMAGE
pp. 35
7:15
STRENGTHS OF THE BAND
pp. 36
7:16
POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR THE BAND
pp. 38
7:20
VIEW ON THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY
pp. 39
7:30
CAREER SUCCESS
pp. 42
7:31
VIEW ON CAREERS
pp. 42
7:32
OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE SUCCESS
pp. 44
7:33
VIEW ON CAREER SUCCESS
pp. 48
7:40
SOCIAL NETWORKS
pp. 50
VIII.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
pp. 57
8:10
HOW TO CONCLUDE
pp. 57
8:20
THE ARTISTS’ CONTEXT
pp. 57
8:30
THE CAREER CONCEPT
pp. 59
8:40
CAREER SUCCESS
pp. 60
8:50
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN ACHIEVING
pp. 62
SUBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS
8:60
LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
pp. 65
8:70
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
5.
6. I. INTRO
1:01
For 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
1
7. 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
2
8. 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?
3
1:30
SET LIST
Figure 1: The “set list”.
9. 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
CAREERS
The 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
4
10. 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 CAREER
The 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.
5
11. 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
6
Figure 2: The four-cell learning matrix (adapted from Hall, 1996).
12. 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 SUCCESS
Along 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
7
13. 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
8
14. 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.
9
15. III.
INTERLUDE: THE DUTCH MUSIC INDUSTRY
3:10
3:10
INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN GENERAL
For 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
10
16. 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
17. 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 INDUSTRY
So, 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
18. 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
19. 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).
14
20. 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).
15
21. 3:30
CONCLUSION
This 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.
16
22. IV.
SOCIAL NETWORKS
4:17
4:10
INTRODUCTION
In 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
23. 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
24. 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 RESEARCH
As 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
25. 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
CONCLUSION
This 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
26. V.
SUCCESS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
5:21
5:10
INTRODUCTION
Seperately, (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
27. 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.
22
28. 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
CONCLUSION
As 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.
23
29. VI.
METHODOLOGY
6:24
6:10
THE ROAD TO ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTION
This 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 DISCOVERY
In 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
30. 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.
25
31. 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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32. 6:30
NARRATIVE ANALYSIS
Narrative 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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33. 6:40
THE CODING PROCESS
Now 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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35. VII.
RESULTS OF DATAANALYSIS
7:30
7:10
BAND
In 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
30
36. 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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37. 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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38. 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
33
39. 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
34
