Creativity and Innovation in der Music Industry – 2nd edition

It is unusual to make a review of a book’s second edition. However, when “Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry” was published in 2006 the outcome of the great transformation process of the music industry was anything than clear. Therefore, it was a great opportunity to revisit the developments in the music industry in the first five years after the millenium and to extent the historic analysis until 2011. This results in a total revision of the chapter on the “Digital Revolution” in the music industry. In the revised version the ongoing process of oligopolization of the recorded music industry is highlighted as well as the market entry of players from outside the industry in the music market. It is also shown that the digital revolution has transformed an initially album driven to a single track market that accounts for the sales slump of recorded music rather than file sharing did – as I pointed out extensively in this blog. However, the main finding in the second edition is that the digital revolution does not only create a totally new value-added network in the music indutsry, but results also in the emergence of a new aesthetic paradigm, just as Jazz became in the 1920s and Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1950s. Therefore we can call the current paradigm shift in the music industry the “Digital Music Revolution”, since electronic dance music has the potential to impact the music creation for decades. “Instead of a song, which can be attributed to creators, a digital track can be used, changed, mixed and transformed. Music, therefore, will become fluid, which will chnage not only the existing copyright regime but also the meaning of music in a new social and cultural context” (pp. 196).

 

Peter Tschmuck, 2012, Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry, 2^nd edition, Springer Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-642-28429-8, e-ISBN 978-3-642-28430-4

Print copies can be directly ordered from Springer Publishing. However single book chapters are also available as an eBook version.

Ticket Masters – Part 6: The Begin of a New Era – the Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger

“Ticket Masters. The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron is one the first books that highlight the emergence of the modern concert industry by telling the story of the rise of its main players: Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It gives a deep insight into the processes within the network of concert promoters, ticketing firms and artist agencies and how this network has evolved over the decades.

In the last part of the summary of Budnick’s and Baron’s book the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation as well as the emergence of 360 deals are highlighted.

Ticket Masters – Part 5: SFX Entertainment and the Revolution in the Concert Promotion Business

“Ticket Masters. The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron is one the first books that highlight the emergence of the modern concert industry by telling the story of the rise of its main players: Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It gives a deep insight into the processes within the network of concert promoters, ticketing firms and artist agencies and how this network has evolved over the decades.

Until the mid-1990s the US concert promotion business was dominated by local venues and promoters. This changed dramatically when SFX Entertainment appeared on the scene. In part 5 the rise of SFX Entertainment to the main power of concert promotion and its transformation into Live Nation is summarized.

Ticket Masters – Part 4: Online Ticketing and the Secondary Market

“Ticket Masters. The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron is one the first books that highlight the emergence of the modern concert industry by telling the story of the rise of its main players: Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It gives a deep insight into the processes within the network of concert promoters, ticketing firms and artist agencies and how this network has evolved over the decades.

In the first decade of 21^st century the ticketing market was fundamentally changed by the launch of online ticket platforms on the Internet. In part 4 Ticketmaster’s strategy towards online ticketing is highlighted as well as the rise of ticket scalpers to secondary market ticketing firms is outlined.

Ticket Masters – Part 3: The Ticketmaster’s Challenge: The Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam and String Cheese Incident

“Ticket Masters. The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron is one the first books that highlight the emergence of the modern concert industry by telling the story of the rise of its main players: Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It gives a deep insight into the processes within the network of concert promoters, ticketing firms and artist agencies and how this network has evolved over the decades.

Ticketmaster had a more or less monopolistic position in the ticketing market after the purchase of its main competitor Ticketron. In part 3 the conflicts between Ticketmaster and bands such as The Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam and String Cheese Incident over the right to sell tickets are highlighted.

Ticket Masters – Part 2: The Rise of Ticketmaster

“Ticket Masters. The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron is one the first books that highlight the emergence of the modern concert industry by telling the story of the rise of its main players: Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It gives a deep insight into the processes within the network of concert promoters, ticketing firms and artist agencies and how this network has evolved over the decades.

After the main players of electronic ticketing service in the 1970s established a modern ticketing market, only Ticketmaster survived. In part 2 the “Rise of Ticketmaster” into a more or less monopolistic market position is highlighted.

Ticket Masters – Part 1: The Emergence of Electronic Ticketing Services

“Ticket Masters. The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron is one of the first books that highlight the emergence of the modern concert industry by telling the story of the rise of its main players: Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It gives a deep insight into the processes within the network of concert promoters, ticketing firms and artist agencies and how this network has evolved over the decades.

In the following six blog articles I am going to summarize Budnick’s and Baron’s book on the live music business starting in part 1 with “The Emergence of Electronic Ticketing Services”.

The Early Record Industry in Australia – Part 6

For several years the Australian music industry was dominated by a few players who enjoyed a more or less monopolistic position. In the infant period of the industry Edison Co. dominated the record business with its cylinders and from 1931 on EMI had the monopoly of record distribution in Australia, which was not challenged until the end of World War II. Therefore, the period with a considerable level of competition in the Australian music industry lasted from 1924 to 1931.

The Early Record Industry in Australia – Part 5

When acoustic recording was replaced by the superior technology of electrical recording, the record companies around the world had more or less unsaleable mechanical recordings in stock. It was estimated that alone in the U.S. approximately two hundred million acoustic discs were on the market. To get rid of the obsolete recordings the record companies sold them at cost price or less through jobbers to specific outlets, which normally did not offer records for sale. In Australia, importers made a profit by selling the outdated recordings with a new label to department stores and other outlets such as drapers and petrol stations. However, the profit margins soon attracted firms which have never previously been in the phonograh business before. Thus, the Australian market was flooded with cheap records by several importers which alarmed those record companies still manufacturing records in Australia. They feared that the cheap imports would cannabilize their regular domestic sales and started an ‘anti-dumping’ campaign.

The Early Record Industry in Australia – Part 4

The main competitors on the world record market, The Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company, originally hesitated to enter the Australian market and it took several years before they etablished record pressing plants in Australia. Whereas the Columbia Graphophone also ran a recording studio from the beginning, the Gramophone Company could not bring itself to operate recording facilities in Australia in order to produce local acts. The Great Depression forced the rivals to amalgamate to EMI also in Australia in 1931.