Are Musicians Entrepreneurs? A Preliminary Analysis

In this narrative literature review, we employed the grounded theory for studying the scientific debate, the contradictions, and the tensions between entrepreneurship and music activity. In particular, this work represents a preliminary study for a more in-depth future analysis of this relationship. The analysis let emerge two superordinate structures, five themes, and eight subthemes. The two superordinate structures represent the most relevant tensions we found in the analyzed articles. The first tension highlights the complicated relationship between musicians’ identity and the entrepreneurial nature of their job. The second tension studies the needed compromises that musicians have to consider between the individualistic nature of their art and the needed conformism imposed by the capitalistic environment of the music market. Finally, in the discussion section, we consider this preliminary study’s limitations and propose several further research opportunities.