ABSTRACT
The fourth chapter comes to grips with understandings of value in digital music culture. Music streaming, a part of the wider uses of the Internet for listening to and accessing music, is understood in relation to shifting ideas and practices concerning musical value. The chapter starts with a discussion of what cloud-based listening has meant for music as a commodity and how this can be related to analytical perspectives on the concept of value. Further, the chapter moves to a discussion of what national contexts for music and media consumption mean for understandings of musical value. Drawing on focus group discussions, the chapter examines young people’s ambivalent stances toward paying for music, as well as their understandings of the materiality of music, in relation to live performances and physical carriers of music. The chapter not only highlights sentiments regarding what is seen as more authentic and less easily accessible, but also shows how concert attendance, practices around MP3 files and online music use are understood to create particular values. With the media structures of Russia and Sweden as a backdrop, contrasting attitudes towards streaming services and the value of owning music are discussed.
