Algoritmo, Trabalho e Subjetividade Neoliberal

efeitos da plataformização nos músicos de game music no YouTube

Abstract

This article examines how platforms transform the work of musicians who create video-game soundtrack covers on YouTube. Drawing on a virtual ethnography that employed participant observation, the study engages three analytical axes: (1) monetization modalities; (2) technical procedures of musical and audiovisual production; and (3) psychosocial effects of algorithmic pressure. Findings indicate that, although YouTube offers global visibility, it imposes engagement targets that recast the musician as an “entrepreneur of the self,” shifting the affective motivation for working with game music repertoire toward a regime of continuous performance adapted to the platform’s algorithmic logic. Consequently, artists practice heightened self-surveillance, feeling increasingly driven by statistical metrics to boost audience retention and platform relevance. Additionally, labor precarity manifests in limited financial returns, prompting workers to seek supplementary income streams. The study concludes that algorithmic intermediation, intertwined with neoliberal rationality, captures both production time and artistic subjectivity, underscoring the need for collective political action to confront such structural asymmetries in digital-platform musical labor.