The entrepreneurial imperative: Recording artists in extreme metal music proto-markets

Recent research on recording artist entrepreneurism suggests that ‘emerging music professionals need an entrepreneurial spirit’ and that ‘they need to think like an entrepreneur (even if some don’t like the term) to sustain a career in the diverse fields of the music industries’. If recording artists are now facing pressure to be both creative and entrepreneurial subjects, how does this duality then impact many of the traditional expectations and practices of recording artistry and the institutions that surround them? As a case intended to explore this question, this article will examine recording artist entrepreneurism through the economic and scenic practices occurring in extreme metal music proto-markets. Specifically, analysis will focus on the case of the Australian band Ne Obliviscaris, who were the first extreme metal act to successfully use the online patronage platform Patreon. Ne Obliviscaris’ turn to Patreon is representative of a broader transition towards recording artist entrepreneurism, where new funding and revenue options are impacting the traditional relations between the artist, the record label and the audience. Entrepreneurism is therefore interpreted as an emerging institutional norm of recording artistry, with implications for recording artists’ subjectivity, expectations and social positions.