Digital inequalities and new challenges for self-managed musical activity during the pandemic context

Abstract

The context of Preventive and Mandatory Social Isolation (ASPO), decreed due to the covid-19 pandemic, altered musical activity and posed new challenges to carry it out under virtualization modalities. This process highlighted the inequalities that digital inclusion goes through, especially the lack of access, use and appropriation of digital technologies by many musicians who self-manage their careers.

To address the impact of the pandemic on the musical activity, this article analyzes the situation and challenges that, during the context of isolation, a group of self-managed rock musicians faced in the city of Avellaneda (located south of the Buenos Aires suburbs, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina), focusing on digital inequalities.

In this work musical activity is considered as a cooperative, collaborative and collective social practice, and it is understood that in self-management there is no figure of a label or record company. To carry out this work, I conducted interviews with the actors/actresses involved and participant observation in the city addressed.

This work hopes to generate information on the musical activity that can be taken into account for the design of public policies aimed at bridging digital gaps.