Can online music platforms be fair? An interdisciplinary research manifesto

In this article we present a manifesto for research into the complex interplay between social media, music streaming services, and their algorithms, which are reshaping the European music industry—a sector that has transitioned from ownership to access-based models. Our focus is to assess whether the current digital economy supports a fair and sustainable development for cultural and creative industries. The manifesto is designed to pave the way for a comprehensive analysis. We begin with the context of our research by briefly examining the de-materialization of the music industry and the critical role of proprietary algorithms in organizing and ranking creative works. We then scrutinize the notion of 'fairness' within digital markets, a concept that is attracting increasing policy interest in the EU. We believe that, for 'fairness' to be effective, the main inquiry around this concept – especially as regards remuneration of content creators - shall be necessarily interdisciplinary. This presupposes collaboration across complementary fields to address gaps and inconsistencies in understanding how these platforms influence music creation and consumption and whether these environments and technologies should be regulated. We outline how interdisciplinary expertise (political science, law, economics, and computer science) can enhance the current understanding of 'fairness' within Europe's cultural policies and help address policy challenges. The article details how our research plan will unfold across various disciplinary hubs, culminating in the integration of their findings to produce the ‘key exploitable results’ of a Horizon Europe project (Fair MusE) that aims to explore challenges and opportunities of today’s digital music landscape