Voices and Melodies of Artistic Precarity: The Unbearable Flexibility of Subjectivity in Independent Musical Work

This article examines the precarity of independent musicians' subjectivity within flexible capitalism. Through a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews and dialogic discourse analysis, it explores tensions between the participants' desire to professionalize their musical careers and the economic difficulties that they face. The participants, selected upon the basis of their trajectory in independent music, reveal how they manage the financial uncertainties that force them to combine creative work with other jobs. Our main finding is that precarity is not only economic, but also existential, as musicians live in constant uncertainty about the continuity and viability of their careers, a doubt that colors the entire creative process. The pleasure of creative freedom coexists with the suffering derived from instability, and this precarity is deeply integrated into the subjectivity of musicians as an inseparable part of their identity. Despite these tensions, musicians remain committed to their careers, accepting precarity as an inevitable condition for their personal and professional fulfillment.