Accounting for Taste and Equity: Measuring the True Cost and Fairness of Cultural Value Using Emergy Analysis

Accounting for Taste and Equity: Measuring the True Cost and Fairness of Cultural Value Using Emergy Analysis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Accounting for Taste and Equity: Measuring the True Cost and Fairness of Cultural Value Using Emergy Analysis Michael McLeod This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8905245/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 13 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study applies emergy analysis as a framework to quantifyboth the environmental impact and social equity dimensions of musicproduction. Using David Byrne's 2004 album Grown Backwards as acase study, I integrate economic data with emergy calculations to estimatetotal environmental resource consumption across the album's full lifecycle.Findings reveal that 98.77% of total emergy derives from theenergy-intensive production and distribution of physical media. I introducea novel ''return on emergy'' (\((\rho)\)) metric to evaluate distributionalfairness among stakeholders. The analysis shows that the record label'sreturn on emergy per labour hour is approximately 28 times higher than theartist's, highlighting a significant structural imbalance in benefitdistribution. This research contributes to sustainability and equitydiscourse in cultural production, offering a holistic framework forassessing the true cost and fairness of cultural value in the digital age.Methodologically, it provides a replicable template for applying emergyanalysis to cultural products; substantively, it introduces the \((\rho)\)metric and generates new empirical findings about the environmental anddistributional implications of cultural production systems. JEL: Q50 · Z11 · L82 Emergy analysis Cultural value Sustainability Social equity Music industry Environmental impact Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 27 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 27 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 14 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 13 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 08 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 01 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 20 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 18 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 19 Feb, 2026 First submitted to journal 17 Feb, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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