“In the place of the giant maw are millions of mouths who can all talk back…We are all produsers now,”(Shirky in Bruns 2008, 17).
The shift from the industrial age into the informational internet economy has led to some significant changes for the way in which products are produced, distributed and consumed today. Traditionally, consumers were placed at the end of the production chain and had very limited opportunity to give feedback about a product. Then came along the democratic web 2.0 which changed this hierarchical system to give a voice to all users. The internet now allows any individual to actively participate in the value chain of a product which blurs the distinction between the traditional roles of producers and consumers. This concept is referred to as produsage and highlights the emergence of a new advanced and professional class of consumers (Bruns 2008, 11).
The Produsage Value Chain
Produsage.org founder, Axel Bruns (2008, 23) notes “in the online, networked, information economy, participants are not simply passive consumers, but active users, with some of them participating more strongly with a focus only on their personal use, some of them participating more strongly in ways which are inherently constructive and productive of social networks and communal content.”
In my professional interest of music, produsage is increasingly evident as the internet transcends space and social distance to give a voice to music fans who can have their say and interact with other fans and musicians all over the world. Fans can connect through online communities and niche social networking sites and collaborate with like-minded individuals who are passionate about music to contribute to different media such as film clips and remixes.
Von Hippel (2005, 1) describes this phenomenon as “the democratization of innovation where users of products and services, both firms and individual consumers, are increasingly able to innovate for themselves’ and, through digital networks in the knowledge economy, these innovations can be distributed, shared and improved upon by user communities.”
An example of music produsage is evident on the website, ccMixter, a “community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want” (ccMixter, 2009). This website allows individuals to legally use samples from artists and contribute or collaborate with other users to create remixes, mash-ups or soundtracks. 
One of the key characteristics of produsage is its open participation to virtually anyone with access to the internet. This however, creates some potential threats to traditional top-down business models such as the music industry as the internet now empowers users. Nancy Baym (2008) notes “fans can and do build communities more rapidly and successfully now than ever before, with consequences not just for their own experience of music, but for everyone involved in the creation, distribution and promotion of music in any capacity. They’re making a new kind of music scene that transcends place and shakes up long-standing balances of power between fans and the music makers.”
Reference:
Baym, N. 2008. Online Community and Fandom. http://www.onlinefandom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/onlinefancommunity.pdf (Accessed April 22, 2009).
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
ccMixter, 2009. http://ccmixter.org/ (Accessed April 22, 2009).
von Hippel, E. 2005. Democratizing Innovation. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
