Sample and Sampling

The construction of the sample was defined and adjusted during the fieldwork according to the flexibility of the “theoretical sampling” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) which enables the selection of groups or categories of people to study on the basis of their relevance for the analysis of music scene in Milan. As Mason suggests: “theoretical sampling is concerned with constructing a sample, which is meaningful theoretically because it builds in certain characteristics or criteria which help to develop and test your theory and explanation” (1996, p. 93-94). Furthermore, I constructed the sample progressively because it allowed me to adapt it to the context and the situation (Bichi, 2002, p.80.) and to take into account different people involved who appeared relevant in the course of the investigation, and putting the different attitudes and experiences together. My idea was to create a high variability in the sample in order to understand the complexities and differences existing in the different circuits of independent live music. Of course considering that different people had different experiences and relationships, but also different points of view and opinions, enabled me to have multiple perceptions of reality, which I could put in a critical relation.

At the beginning of my fieldwork I relied upon the knowledge of my informants, who were able to understand the relevance of my research and translate it into their everyday experiences.

I realized that the choice of the informants and the entry point I would take were going to be very critical in determining the course of the fieldwork.

When I actually considered the most effective entry point for locating some useful informants, one common suggestion was to start from music development agencies, associations or organizations promoting local music or gathering information on live music venues and also musicians collectives at a local level. In the analysis of international studies about live music, it was common to find the existence of local organizations and bodies representing musicians and music producers, something that could not be found in the case of Milan. I could find only a few associations working at a national level aimed either at promoting independent record labels (MEI²², Audiocoop²³ and PMI, independent music producers) and or at gathering organizers and producers of live music performances (Assomusica), but including especially big operators with big acts (Live Nation was one of the partners). I started to

22 MEI (Meeting of independent record labels) is the Italian music expo of the independent record labels.

23 Audiocoop is the association born with MEI, gathering some if the independent record labels. Its aim is of gathering and representing independent record labels internationally and at a institutional level.

116 consider that more informal associations and organizations should be a more useful starting point, or rather that I could rely upon informants not embedded in any institutional organization but anyway key players in the different circuits of independent live music.

More than that I have used a snowball technique which implied that most of my interviewees have been selected being recommended by other people I already interviewed.

By using a snow-ball technique, I selected new interviewees operating at different level in the live music sector in Milan (including musicians, venues managers, booking agents etc.), together with some respondents working outside of the sector but strongly influencing it, such as people working in the local state (consultants and politicians) or people involved in the music industry.

I would like now to summarize the possible disadvantages and problems entailed in relying upon informants and in using the snowball technique. Firstly informants had a key role in guiding me through the different live music circuits existing in Milan, but even other methods were used in order to avoid that their advices would play an integral part in my understanding of the field. The risk of interpreting the field as my informants described this to me was high, especially at the beginning when I didn’t know that much about the field and I had to rely upon their knowledge. That’s because these people had already developed a personal framework to understand the world I was aiming to study (Bichi, 2002). Another possible risk could be that my interviewees were either recommending people to interview, who were not related to the research object, or were presenting me so that the new interviewee would actually misunderstanding the significance of my research, which was something I could solve during the interview by introducing myself and my research project.

I even tried to address these challenges by using other methods more than the interviews such as participant observations and document analysis which especially at an initial stage played a key role in my understanding of the field. For example document analysis enabled me to understand which could be the people I could interview independently from the suggestions of my respondents.

Secondly one of the elements to be taken into account in the selection of the sample through informants and by using the snowball technique is that the construction of the network of interviewees can be influenced by the relations of friendship existing between people interviewed and people recommended to be interviewed by other interviewees. However, since these networks are based on friendship-type relationships, even in the case of the

117 professional relationship, it is difficult to think that the relationships made during the fieldwork were not based upon similar assumptions.

Otherwise in other situations the interviewees may suggest either people in higher positions of power or more famous in order to show their closeness and their good placement within the networks. All these statements are both important assumptions of research, but also factors to be taken into account to critically analyze how the sample was selected.

Considering instead the sample, it was constituted by the 45 interviewees to which the big amount of people with whom I had informant conversations needs to be added.

The choice of my respondents was not based upon socio-demographic characteristics but rather considering the roles these people were playing, considering the multi-tasking and multi-sited nature of activities and networks taking place.

I was trying to choose my sample selecting people depending on the roles they were covering and I was aimed at using this criteria of the selection of roles as a possible way of dividing my sample into groups (choosing for example a certain number of musicians, music journalists and booking agents, venues owners and so on). The point was immediately from the first interviews I conducted, that most of the subjects were actually playing many roles on a professional and amateur basis. Therefore I couldn’t rely upon the assumption that each individual was only subscribing to a main role, since the main role played was in many cases not clear to the respondents themselves. Furthermore, it was not easy to define which criteria were determining the main role played: economic reward, personal satisfaction or artistic fulfillment?

It was instead in the complex mixing of tasks carried out on a professional and amateur basis, that were making individuals able to define their identity, and that were enabling them to make a living from music. Hence the multitasking nature of my interviewees had a strong impact even on the construction of my sample because I was starting to realize that the complexities of roles played were influencing people’s actions and interactions, and therefore it was not something I could underestimate.

I had therefore decided to take into account the multiplicities of roles carried out, bearing in mind that I wanted to reproduce the various forms of activities taking place in the live music circuits in Milan. Besides the multitasking attitude was interlinked to the mobile nature of activities carried out, which couldn’t be restricted to a single organization.

That’s why the list of the interviewees is indicated in the appendix considering the roles carried on by the interviewee, and not their socio-demographic characteristics. For now I want

118 just to say that the sample has tried to cover most of the roles played on a more professional or amateur basis (musicians, DJs, promoters, music managers, music venue owners, music journalists, music publisher, record managers, artistic directors, press agents) in the independent live music circuits in Milan, trying again to take into account other people who could possibly being interacting with this sector.

I think that anyway it’s interesting to start saying something about the socio-demographic characteristics of my respondents that I didn’t directly ask but that I could reconstruct by looking at the different experiences and stories of my interviewees, and especially in the information I could find in the internet about their biographies.

Considering the age, I would say that most of my respondents were in the age group between 25 and 40. Only very few were younger, and the older were usually those people having more important professional roles in the music industry (such as a music publisher in a major, big promoters) or were covering institutional roles in some organizations, associations (such as the president of ARCI cultural association²⁴ or of MEI) or in the City Council or the Councilor of Trade or the Councilor of Culture).

As regards the gender as I expected looking at other studies about independent music scenes, my respondents have been mostly male, and of the only six women interviewed, three were contacted after having interviewed their partners, and in many cases they were working for or with the partner. Only white people have been interviewed and only white people have been met in the participant observations.

Regarding the education, I can say that my respondents were generally having higher education, but with a high number of people who withdrew from University before completion of their courses. But this characteristics will be detailed later on in the analysis.

Looking instead at their geographical location, only some of my interviewees were living in Milan. Some of them were living outside the city, some moved to Milan and some left Milan during the fieldwork. Some were temporarily coming to Milan.

From the beginning of the fieldwork and from the interviews, it was possible to point out the mobile nature of life experiences of people touring, people working in Milan without living here, people leaving or coming to Milan and so on. Therefore the sampling has not been restricted to people living and working permanently in Milan.

24 ARCI (Recreational and Cultural Association in Italy) is an Italian association of social promotion. It gathers local associations dealing with various topics: culture (art, film / video, literature / poetry, music, theatre / dance), tourism, human, social work, community service and international solidarity. Only in the Milanese area it gathers around 160 clubs, some of which are active independent live music venues.

119 Even though my research looks at Milan as major focus of attention, I have tried to take into account the different careers, relationships and interactions of my respondents which couldn’t be restricted only within the city of Milan. I have done several attempts to restrict my field to a particular physical space but that was not enabling to understand the different circuits of independent music. That’s why as the next chapters will show, networks of independent music production and performance cannot be restricted to the local context of the city of Milan.

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