Conceptualizing curation in the age of abundance : The case of recorded music

The contemporary marketplace for cultural products, such as music, fashion and film, features anabundance of goods, services and experiences. While producers struggle to differentiate and monetizetheir offerings, some consumers are overwhelmed by the amount of choice and informationavailable to them. As a result, many consumers are turning to a range of intermediaries who helpthem make sense of the marketplace.While intermediation is nothing new, its value is increasing andthere has been a shift in relative importance from those who create products to those who curateproducts. As curation remains a ‘fuzzy concept’ – with definitions and connotations that vary byindustry and occupation – this paper aims to contribute to existing conceptualizations by focusing onthe case of recorded music. Based on interviews and observation with a subset of curators, includingrecord shops and music writers, the paper provides a typology of curation-related activitiesand highlights the range of economic and non-economic rewards that motivate different actors toperform curation. It also interrogates the importance and role of space by identifying physical,temporary and virtual spaces where curation is performed and relationships between specific spatialdynamics and curation-related processes.Rumsliga perspektiv på mellanhänder och ’kuratorer’ i värdeskapande processe