Amateur experts

• With the rise of Web 2.0 have come increased opportunities for fans to serve as filters, influencing the global flow of cultural materials. On the one hand, this represents a giant leap forward for fans, who can now serve new roles without industry support. On the other, it represents a potentially exploitative transformation of media industries in which unpaid volunteers do the labour that professionals are paid to do. This article examines this tension with a close analysis of the global Internet scene around Swedish independent music. Interviews with music industry actors and particularly active fans are used to establish the value of fan practices to the industry and to examine how the fans understand the tensions between their own costs and rewards, exploitation and empowerment. •