Constructing Inequality Regimes: A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Musicians on Digital Platforms

Digital platforms are reshaping musicians’ professional identities and career paths. Current research primarily focuses on how algorithmic classification and recommendation systems influence music distribution and visibility. However, little attention has been paid to how platforms draw professional boundaries, shape identities, and reproduce career inequality through organisational processes. This study combines Bourdieusian concepts of field and position with the framework of inequality regimes to propose an analytical framework for studying how digital platforms affect musicians' careers and professional identities. The qualitative framework emphasises the non-human processes through which inequality is produced and reproduced. As integral components of this framework, we introduce two analytical concepts: group-making mechanisms and platform-based professional socialisation. Group-making mechanisms explain how platform classifications create mainstream and marginal categories and reproduce inequality. Platform-based professional socialisation suggests that musicians gradually accept and adapt to platform logics of classification through interaction and shape their professional identities accordingly. These concepts provide new theoretical tools for understanding the interplay between identity construction and inequality on digital platforms. As a conceptual contribution, this study lays the groundwork for future empirical research on professional identity and inequality in platform-based cultural production. It also extends the application of Acker’s inequality regimes to digital contexts.