Study title

The project "Clouds and Concerts: Mediation and Mobility in Contemporary Music Culture, 2013" comprised three research questions related to the new digital environments in contemporary music culture. First, it aimed at investigating the relationship between live and mediated forms of artist-audience interaction. Of particular interest was how the content and value of liveness has changed with the new forms and combinations of mediation and live performance made possible by online communication and distribution. A second field of investigation was the specific interaction of individual and collective forms of reception of the new digital environments. The third research question aimed at viewing the two other research questions through the focal lens of a particular and personal technology: the mobile phone. The project concerned key challenges linked to the role of music in contemporary society and aimed at exploring the characteristics of digital technology in the field of music as it is in us. The project involved researchers from PhD to professor level with backgrounds from music and media research. The data includes 23 focus-group interviews collected by the researchers between 2010-2013. Data was collected in 2010 (6 focus groups), 2011 (8 focus groups), 2012 (6 focus groups) and 2013 (6 focus goups).