Playing for free to get paid: activism work as (ineffective) entrepreneurial strategy in Mendoza’s music scene

Musicians have long participated in the gig and gift economies, especially since the neoliberal turn of the late twentieth century. While previous scholars focus on the precarious careers of entrepreneurial musicians, few consider the processes that devalue such work in the first place, especially in relation to volunteerism. This project is important because it considers musical activism from the perspective of work rather than protest, and it sheds light on Argentina’s musical activity beyond Buenos Aires. Applying theories of moral economy to my ethnographic observations and interviews from 2019–2020, I argue that musicians in Argentina who perform at activist events attempt to leverage moral capital to create a marketing image, thereby masking musical work as a gift rather than a gig. Consequently, artists, event producers, and the general public disassociate music performance from paid work, devaluing the same entrepreneurial careers the musicians strive to develop.