{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T23:28:59Z","timestamp":1777937339107,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,6]],"date-time":"2024-04-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1712361600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,6]],"date-time":"2024-04-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1712361600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Musicians are believed to increasingly \u201coptimize\u201d their music to positively influence discoverability and engagement on music and social media platforms. Common examples of such optimization strategies are skipping intros, quickly moving to the chorus, or inserting danceable \u201chooks.\u201d But to what extent are optimization strategies actively considered in the creative production process? And, if so, in what stage of production? In this article, we explore how professional musicians reflect on the opportunities and constraints that optimization strategies offer in the creative music production process. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with early to mid-career professional musicians and songwriters, we identify four different positions between \u201cpure\u201d artistic autonomy and \u201cpure\u201d commercialism that musicians typically take on in relation to these optimization strategies. We demonstrate that musicians are aware that sonically \u201cworking towards\u201d platforms may bring economic success, while simultaneously maintaining a general reluctance towards outright commercial, \u201cfull optimization\u201d ideologies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/14614448241243095","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,6]],"date-time":"2024-04-06T07:18:46Z","timestamp":1712387926000},"page":"4773-4789","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Write, record, optimize? How musicians reflect on music optimization strategies in the creative production process"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Nick","family":"Polak","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3656-4225","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julian","family":"Schaap","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/joie.12263"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0003122417728662"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18574\/nyu\/9781479896165.001.0001"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0261143000003895"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2056305119880006"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2056305120984477"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_8_1","volume-title":"The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature","author":"Bourdieu P","year":"1993","unstructured":"Bourdieu P (1993) The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. 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