Musicians are believed to increasingly “optimize” 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 “hooks.” 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 “pure” artistic autonomy and “pure” commercialism that musicians typically take on in relation to these optimization strategies. We demonstrate that musicians are aware that sonically “working towards” platforms may bring economic success, while simultaneously maintaining a general reluctance towards outright commercial, “full optimization” ideologies.

中文翻译：

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编写、记录、优化？音乐家如何反思创意制作过程中的音乐优化策略

人们相信音乐家会越来越多地“优化”他们的音乐，以积极影响音乐和社交媒体平台的可发现性和参与度。此类优化策略的常见示例是跳过前奏、快速进入副歌部分或插入可跳舞的“hook”。但创意制作过程中在多大程度上积极考虑了优化策略？如果是的话，是在哪个生产阶段？在本文中，我们探讨了专业音乐家如何反思优化策略在创意音乐制作过程中提供的机会和限制。基于对职业生涯早期到中期的专业音乐家和词曲作者的 20 次深度访谈，我们确定了音乐家在这些优化策略方面通常采取的“纯粹”艺术自主性和“纯粹”商业主义之间的四种不同立场。我们证明音乐家意识到，声音上的“致力于”平台可能会带来经济上的成功，同时保持对彻底商业化、“全面优化”意识形态的普遍不愿意。