Platformization of Music Production: Bedroom Studios, Labor Precarity, and Distribution

Kato Bukenya T.

Faculty of Business and Management Kampala International University Uganda

                                                                      ABSTRACT
This paper examines the platformization of music production, with particular focus on the rise of bedroom studios, the restructuring of creative labour, and the evolving mechanisms of music distribution in digital platform economies. It argues that platformization has fundamentally reconfigured music production by lowering entry barriers through accessible digital audio technologies while simultaneously intensifying labour precarity through algorithmic governance, fragmented revenue systems, and unstable income streams. Bedroom studios emerge as both sites of creative empowerment and economic constraint, reflecting broader shifts in the decentralisation of production and the informalisation of labour. The study further explores how platform infrastructures such as streaming services, social media, and content aggregators mediate visibility, monetisation, and audience engagement, thereby reshaping traditional notions of authorship, professionalism, and artistic value. Drawing on theories of platform capitalism and digital labour, the paper highlights the tension between increased accessibility and deepening structural inequalities within the music industry. It concludes that while platformization has democratised music production, it has also embedded new forms of dependency, surveillance, and economic instability, requiring urgent reconsideration of regulatory frameworks, labour protections, and sustainable creative ecosystems.

Keywords: Platformization, Music production, Bedroom studios, Labour precarity, and Digital distribution.

CITE AS: Kato Bukenya T. (2026). Platformization of Music Production: Bedroom Studios, Labor Precarity, and Distribution. IDOSR JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND ENGLISH 11(1):39-48. https://doi.org/10.59298/IDOSR/JCE/111.19.3948