Transformations and continuities in the mastering sector

This chapter discusses the disruptions in the mastering sector in the context of broader historical changes in the music industries. First, the disruption currently faced by the mastering sector is part of a long tradition stretching back at least to the early twentieth century. Continuing a previous study this research involves surveying professional mastering engineers to develop a picture of how the sector is responding to interventions from cloud-based automated mastering services such as LANDR and CloudBounce. The disruptions are perhaps better understood in the context of 'transformations and continuities'. In the past decade, however, the disruptions and disintermediations present in many other points of the music value chain have begun to appear in the professional mastering sector. The mastering engineers the surveyed expressed a range of views on the real or perceived threat of a cloud-based automated mastering services.