This dissertation examines the impact of digital recording technology on the field of music production. Focusing primarily on the shift from analog tape-based systems to software-based hard drive recording systems (also known as digital audio workstations or DAWs), this dissertation investigates the degree to which this shift in technology has impacted the field in the realms of both professional and hobbyist practitioners.

The study finds that the impact of digital technology has been significant in at least two major ways. First, the particular characteristics of digital technology itself, from its ability to provide for endless tracks of recording, to its powerful capabilities for editing and other sonic manipulation, have led to numerous changes in the working practices of recordists, both professional and hobbyist. Second, the much lower costs associated with digital recording systems have significantly lowered the barriers of entry to the field as a whole, and have facilitated an expansion of the field in terms of increased participation. This growth in turn has led to a growth in the market for providing recording-related equipment, as well as facilitating a variety of new smaller-scale economic opportunities and burgeoning cottage industries.

Utilizing a theoretical framework derived from Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this dissertation is based primarily on qualitative field work, specifically in-depth interviews with recordists at the professional, semi-professional, and hobbyist levels of the field. It also draws upon concepts from Yochai Benkler's work on the networked information economy and Henry Jenkins' work on participatory culture, and ultimately argues that many of the changes in the field of music production can be understood as part of the larger changes in cultural production that have followed from the introduction of digital technologies more generally.