Precarization on Spotify: the work of musicians mediated by streaming platforms

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Abstract

Streaming has been the main driver of growth in the music industry since 2017, according to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (2024). This research aims to explore the relationship among the streaming platform Spotify, the precarization of work in the music industry, and the platformization of labor. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with independent artists who upload tracks to the platform, complemented by bibliographic research and documentary analysis. The main findings of the study include a description and analysis of the pitching process; insights into Spotify’s management from the interviewees' perspective; an analysis of the streaming service's terms of use; and a discussion of the meanings associated with autonomous work. This research concludes that the relationship between musicians and Spotify is characterized by competitiveness and the hierarchization of artists within the streaming ecosystem, power imbalances, a lack of transparency between the platform and the artist, and insufficient compensation for music plays, factors that contribute to the precarization of work in music.

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Author Biographies

Paula Regina Pereira Marcelino, Universidade de São Paulo

Paula Marcelino is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP); she has been teaching undergraduate courses since 2011 and graduate courses since 2015. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences in 1999 from the University of Campinas (Unicamp), and obtained her Master's degree in Sociology (2002) and PhD in Social Sciences (2008) from the same institution. Part of her doctoral studies was carried out at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships: one in Sociology at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) between 2008 and 2009 (1 year), and another in Political Science at Unicamp in 2010 (1 year). She also conducted postdoctoral research as part of a Capes-Cofecub project at the University of Lyon II, France, between 2012 and 2013 (2 months), and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, United States, between 2021 and 2022 (1 year).

Her work focuses on issues related to the condition and action of workers: the crisis and recovery of unionism, social classes, productive restructuring, neoliberalism, and labor precarization. Among other texts, she has published the books The Logistics of Precarization: Outsourcing of Labor at Honda Brazil, São Paulo: Expressão Popular, 2004 (with a first reprint in 2009), and Outsourced Workers and Union Struggle, Curitiba: Appris, 2013.

She is editor of the journal Revista Crítica Marxista (São Paulo) and leader of the CNPq Research Group "Luta: Study and Research on Social Classes, Unionism, and Gender in Contemporary Brazil." She is also a member of the CNPq Research Group titled "Neoliberalism and Class Relations in Brazil," coordinated by Armando Boito Jr. (Unicamp). She is currently the coordinator of the Graduate Program in Sociology at USP.

Seham Furlan Ochoa, Universidade de São Paulo

Graduada em Ciências Sociais pela Universidade de São Paulo e em Jornalismo pela Faculdade Cásper Líbero. Tem formação em Canto Lírico pela Escola de Música do Estado de São Paulo. Pesquisa sobre trabalho e música.

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Published

2026-05-19

How to Cite

MARCELINO, Paula Regina Pereira; OCHOA, Seham Furlan. Precarization on Spotify: the work of musicians mediated by streaming platforms. Orfeu, Florianópolis, v. 11, n. 1, p. e0104, 2026. Disponível em: https://www.periodicos.udesc.br/index.php/orfeu/article/view/27123. Acesso em: 21 may. 2026.

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2026): Open-Topic Articles – Continuous Publication

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2026 Paula Regina Pereira Marcelino, Seham Furlan

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