First Monday Revisited: Production and Dissemination of Diasporic Jazz in the Digital Age

The chapter is a reflection on the radical changes that characterize the music industry in the digital age. With reference to European jazz collectives and cooperative initiatives, the authors explore the various informal strategies jazz musicians develop to overcome the threats of precarious artistic labor. The contribution also examines the lack of market and state funding in the promotion of thriving scene- and community- based diasporic jazz cultures in Europe. The bottom-up practices seeking to negotiate the tensions between commercial success and artistic autonomy point beyond the field of jazz and serve as illustrative models for counteracting the market imperatives of the global music industry.