Geographers have studied the complex relationships between cultural production, consumption, and space for some time, but the marketplace for cultural products is being reconfigured by digital technologies and broader societal trends. For producers of fashion and music the contemporary marketplace is a double-edged sword featuring lower entry barriers and fierce competition from an unprecedented number of producers and ubiquitous substitutes. Global firms and local entrepreneurs struggle to stand out in the crowd and command monopoly rents for their unique goods and services. This paper examines how independent cultural producers use ‘exclusivity’ to generate attention and distinction. Drawing on qualitative research with independent musicians and fashion designers in Toronto, Stockholm, Berlin, and New York it presents three mechanisms through which exclusivity can be created. These include exploiting consumer demand for uniqueness, enrolling consumers into the production and promotion process, and manipulating physical and virtual space.
BanksM, 2007The Politics of Cultural Work” (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants)
5.
BeckerH S, 1982Art Worlds (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
6.
BenjaminW, 1999The Arcades Project (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
7.
BourdieuP, 1984Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard University Press, Cambridge)
8.
BourdieuP, 1993The Field of Cultural Production (Polity Press, Cambridge)
9.
BuggeM M, 2011, “Creative distraction: Lack of collective learning in adapting to online advertising in Oslo, Norway”Industry and Innovation18227–248
10.
CallonMMeadelCRabeharisoaV, 2002, “The economy of qualities”Economy and Society31194–217
11.
ChamberlinE H, 1962The Theory of Monopolistic Competition: Reorientation of the Theory of Value(Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA); first published in 1933
12.
CreweL, 2003, “Geographies of retailing and consumption: Markets in motion”Progress in Human Geography27352–362
13.
CreweL, 2010, “Wear: Where? The convergent geographies of architecture and fashion”Environment and Planning A422093–2108
14.
CreweLGregsonNBrooksK, 2003, “The discursivities of difference: Retro retailers and the ambiguities of ‘the alternative’”Journal of Consumer Culture3(1) 61–82
15.
CurrahA, 2003, “The virtual geographies of retail display”Journal of Consumer Culture35–37
16.
CurridE, 2007The Warhol Economy: How Fashion Art and Music Drive New York City (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
17.
Denegri-KnottJMolesworthM, 2010, “Concepts and practices of digital virtual consumption”Consumption Markets and Culture13109–132
18.
ElberseA, 2008, “Should you invest in the long tail?”Harvard Business Review86 (7/8) 88–96
HarveyD, 1996Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference” (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford)
30.
HarveyD, 2001Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography (Routledge, New York)
31.
HaugeAHracsB J, 2010“See the sound, hear the style: Collaborative linkages between indie musicians and fashion designers in local scenes”Industry and Innovation17(1) 113–129
32.
HaugeAMalmbergAPowerD, 2009, “The spaces and places of Swedish fashion”European Planning Studies17529–547
33.
HodkinsonP, 2004, “Translocal connections in the Goth scene”, in Music Scenes: Local, Translocal, and Virtual Eds BennettAPetersonR A, (Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, TN) pp 131–148
34.
HorkheimerMAdornoT W, 1972Dialectic of Enlightenment (Herder and Herder, New York)
HracsB J, 2009, “Beyond Bohemia: Geographies of everyday creativity for musicians in Toronto”Spaces of Vernacular Creativity: Rethinking the Cultural Economy Eds EdensorTLeslieDMillingtonSRantisiN, (Routledge, London) pp 75–88
37.
HracsB J, 2012, “A creative industry in transition: The rise of digitally-driven independent music production”Growth and Change43442–461
38.
HracsB JGrantJ LHaggettJMortonJ, 2011, “A tale of two scenes: Civic capital and retaining musical talent in Toronto and Halifax”The Canadian Geographer55365–382
39.
JakobD, 2009Beyond Creative Production Networks: The Development of Intra-Metropolitan Creative Industries Clusters in Berlin and New York City (Rhombos, Berlin)
40.
JakobD, 2013, “Crafting your way out of the recession? New craft entrepreneurs and the global economic downturn”Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society6127–140
41.
JanssonJPowerD, 2010, “Fashioning a global city: Global city brand channels in the fashion and design industries”Regional Studies44889–904
42.
JanssonJWaxellA, 2011, “Quality and regional competitiveness”Environment and Planning A432237–2252
43.
JaramilloFKempfHMoizeauF, 2001, “Conspicuous consumption, social status and clubs”Annales d'Économie et de Statistique63/64321–344
44.
KellyK, 1998New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (Viking, New York)
45.
KleinN, 2000No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (Picador, New York)
LeyshonA, 2009, “The software slump? Digital music, the democratisation of technology, and the decline of the recording studio sector within the musical economy”Environment and Planning A411309–1331
51.
LeyshonAWebbPFrenchSThriftNCreweL, 2005, “On the reproduction of the musical economy after the Internet”Media, Culture and Society27177–209
PikeA, 2009, “Geographies of brands and branding”Progress in Human Geography33619–645
59.
PikeA, 2011, “Placing brands and branding: A socio-spatial biography of Newcastle Brown Ale”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series36206–222
60.
PostrelV I, 2003The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness (HarperCollins, New York)
61.
PottsJHartleyJBanksJBurgessJCobcroftRCunninghamSMontgomeryL, 2008, “Consumer co-creation and situated creativity”Industry and Innovation15459–474
62.
PowerDHallencreutzD, 2007, “Competitiveness, local production systems and global commodity chains in the music industry: Entering the US market”Regional Studies41377–389
63.
PowerDHaugeA, 2008“No man's brand—brands, institutions, and fashion”Growth and Change39123–143
SimmelG, 1978The Philosophy of Money(Routledge and Kegan Paul, London); first published 1900
69.
ShultzB J, 2011Handmade and DIY: The Cultural Economy in the Digital AgePhD dissertation, Department of Geography, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
70.
ThorntonS, 1997, “The social logic of subcultural capital”, in The Subcultures Reader Eds GelderKThorntonS, (Routledge, London) pp 200–212
71.
ThorntonS, 2009, “Seven Days in the Art World” (Granta Books)
72.
TokatliN, 2012, “Old firms, new tricks and the quest for profits: Burberry's journey from success to failure and back to success again”Journal of Economic Geography1255–77
73.
TungateM, 2004Media Monoliths: How Great Media Brands Thrive and Survive (Kogan PageLondon)
74.
ValentineG, 2005, “Tell me about…: Using interviews as a research methodology”, in Methods in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a Research Project Eds FlowerdewRMartinD, (Longman, Harlow, Essex) pp 110–127
75.
VeblenT, 1912The Theory of the Leisure Class(A M Kelley, New York); first published 1899
76.
Von HippelE, 2005Democratizing Innovation (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
77.
WilsonE, 2000Bohemians: The Glamorous Outcasts (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ)
78.
ZukinS, 1989Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban ChangeRutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ
79.
ZukinS, 2004Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture (Routledge, New York)
80.
ZukinS, 2010Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, New York)
81.
ZukinSMaguireJ S, 2004, “Consumers and consumption”Annual Review of Sociology30173–197
82.
ZwickDBonsuS KDarmodyA, 2008, “Putting consumers to work: Co-creation and new marketing govern-mentality”Journal of Consumer Culture8163–196
