International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2023, vol. 12, nr. 1

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Volume 12, no 1, April 2023

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, p. 1

Benjamin Oduro Arhin, Mark Millas Coffie, Hope Senalor Konu & Edwin Ekow Annan Ferguson: Split Sheets in Ghanaian Recording Studios, pp. 3-12

William E. Tsitsos & R. Saylor Breckenridge: The Work of Reproduction in the Age of Digital Art: The Role of ‘Aura’ in the Revitalisation of Vinyl Records and Cassettes, pp. 13-23

Farley J. Joseph: Sustaining Innovation: Digital Live Music Models in a Post-COVID-19 Trinidad and Tobago, pp. 25-41

Book review by Catherina Strong: Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data and COVID-19. Edited by Guy Morrow, Daniel Nordgård and Peter Tschmuck, Springer Music Business Research book series, pp. 43-44

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Music as an Investment – Part 3: Primary Wave

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Primary Wave is a new type of music publisher founded in New York City in January 2006 by former Virgin Records CEO, Larry Mestel. Primary Wave does not aim at the acquisition and exploitation of classical publishing rights, but instead purchases the artist’s share of publishing rights and master rights, primarily to monetise their use in TV, film and advertising (synchronisation rights to musical works). Part 3 of the series “Music as an Investment” analyses Primary Wave’s rise to one of the most influential players in the international music rights market.

Call for papers: 14th International Music Business Research Days 2023

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14^th International Music Business Research Days

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Towards Sustainability in Music Business?

Balancing new business models, changing labor conditions and new competences

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November 1 – 3, 2023

Call-for-papers, 1-3 November 2023

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Music business, and the frameworks and dynamics of the music industries, continue to develop and change, with new digital innovations, new formats, new business models and new content being created. It is nothing new that music business operates within changing economic- and technological framework conditions – these are perhaps more to be considered inherent features rather than substantial shifts. Nonetheless, these changes need to be continually addressed and critically discussed.

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There’s a need for updated, interdisciplinary research to provide insights on how digital innovations affect business models, value-chains and power dynamics in the music industries. It’s critical that we discuss sustainability – both environmental, economic and artistic. We need to better understand labor conditions in music business and a better understanding of work-life balance and mental health. Not least do we need critical and updated debates on what competences are needed in the future music business, and to what extent universities and academic institutions are in step with developments. As examples, over the last three years we have experienced a pandemic with significant impact on markets and labor conditions, particularly in the live music market. We have also witnessed significant digital innovations, such as web 3 or AI, opening up a range of creative opportunities, but also some difficult discussions.

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With this backdrop, we are thrilled to invite you to the14th International Music Business Research Days 2023, which will be hosted by the Popular Music Department of the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway in collaboration with IMBRA – The International Music Business Research Association.

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THEMES
The International Music Business Research Days provides a platform for interdisciplinary discussion that encompasses various areas such as economics, art, culture, society, law, technology, and other developments that contribute to the different aspects of music, including creation and production, dissemination and distribution, and reception and consumption. The inclusive and interdisciplinary nature of the forum welcomes scholars from diverse scientific fields, calling for a range of research methods. We encourage submissions of papers on a broad range of themes, not limited to those mentioned below:

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DIGITAL CHANGE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRIES
• Influence of AI tools on the music industry
• Streaming and power dynamics
• Copyright and AI
• New digital platforms such as web3, metaverse and blockchain based platforms
• Fan engagement
• Locality in globality
• Change in business models, markets and value chain

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POLICY AND LEGISLATION
• Sustainability
• Cultural policy and entrepreneurship
• Social worth as economic performance
• Commodification and capitalism
• Cross border licensing

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MUSIC BUSINESS EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
• Entrepreneurship pedagogy
• Labor conditions and new competences
• Music and health
• Curriculum in music business education
• Between business and education. How to prepare students for the music industry that is in flux?

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SUBMISSION
Please send your abstract no later than 15th of May, 2023 to imbrd@uia.no
Abstracts can be 300-500 words (any references are included in the word count) and should include:
• Objectives of the research and research question
• Brief description of the disciplinary/theoretical context/background
• Data and methods
• Main or expected conclusions / contribution

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Abstracts will be subject to a peer review process by an international jury, and authors will be notified of acceptance by June 15, 2021.

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The best papers of this conference will be considered for publication in a special issue of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR). In case you want to be eligible for this special issue, full papers should be sent before November 30th, 2023. They should not exceed 7,000 words (including abstracts, figures, tables, references and appendices) and follow the author guidelines of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR). A first selection will be made after the conference by the editors, after which a double-blind peer review process is in place for these submissions.

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IMPORTANT DATES
• 15 May: Abstract submission deadline
• 15 June: Notification of acceptance
• 1-2-3 November: Conference
• 30 November: Delivery of full paper for consideration for publication

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Call-for-papers, 1-3 November 2023 (pdf version)

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Call for Papers: 13th Young Scholars’ Workshop of the International Music Business Research Days 2023

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The 14th International Music Business Research Days 2023

Call for Papers: Young Scholars’ Workshop

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The Young Scholars’ Workshop, as part of the 14th International Music Business Research Days (Kristiansand, Norway), invites once again young researchers to submit paper abstracts of all disciplines exploring questions that help understand economic and managerial problems as well as processes of the music business sector and in the field of music management.
We encourage early-stage researchers, either in the beginning of their doctorate projects, or in the beginning of their academic careers, to submit paper abstracts.

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There are many questions that call for investigation and need to be discussed in music business research, for example:

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DIGITAL CHANGE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRIES
• Influence of AI tools on the music industry
• Streaming and power dynamics
• Copyright and AI
• New digital platforms such as web3, metaverse and blockchain based platforms
• Fan engagement
• Locality in globality
• Change in business models, markets and value chain

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POLICY AND LEGISLATION
• Sustainability
• Cultural policy and entrepreneurship
• Social worth as economic performance
• Commodification and capitalism
• Cross border licensing

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MUSIC BUSINESS EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
• Entrepreneurship pedagogy
• Labor conditions and new competences
• Music and health
• Curriculum in music business education
• Between business and education. How to prepare students for the music industry that is in flux?

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These research questions are not exhaustive, papers may also address other aspects.

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The workshop organizers strongly encourage submissions from students at all levels of MA & PhD. Students are supposed to work on their MA or PhD thesis and discuss it with senior researchers of music business research.

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Abstracts (of up to 500 words) are due by June 15, 2023 and full papers (6-8000 words) are due by October 15, 2023. Only abstracts and papers submitted on time will be considered.

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A maximum of 6-8 papers will be selected for presentation to guarantee a workshop atmosphere. The sessions will combine paper presentations and discussions including interactive elements. Information on the acceptance of the paper proposal will be sent until July 10, 2023, at the latest.

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Please email your submission to imbrd@uia.no marked with YSW, 2023.

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Paper proposals and final papers must be submitted as pdf documents and should include contact information, at least affiliation, e-mail address, telephone number and postal address of the author(s).

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Call for Papers: Young Scholars’ Workshop

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Music as an Investment – Part 2: BMG re-enters the music rights business

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) is an interesting case of a company exiting the music business in the 2000s and re-entering it in 2009 to invest billions of dollars in publishing and master catalogues and to become the fourth largest music company in the world behind the three majors – Universal, Sony and Warner. BMG’s re-entry into the music industry thus marks the first phase of the boom around the purchase of music rights, which is examined more closely in this case study of BMG.

Music as an Investment – Part 1: An Overview

Until a few years ago, music publishing was considered to be a rather boring business field in which music rights are acquired and licensed for various uses. This business model has not principally changed, but music rights have become a speculative investment in recent years, when new players such as Hipgnosis, Primary Wave and Round Hill entered the market with spectacular music catalogue acquisitions in the multi-digit million range.

This blog entry traces the development of the music rights market and the most important players in recent years and is the introduction to a multi-part blog series on “Music as an Investment”.

13th International Music Business Research Days in Retrospective

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After the Poplive! project team of the Erasmus University Rotterdam had successfully organized the International Music Business Research Days 2021, the conference took place again this year at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Based on the main topic of the partner conference – Parallel Societies – this year’s talks and discussions focused on “Parallel Worlds in the Music Industry” on 20 October 2022.

On the morning of the third day of the conference, Beate Flath from the University of Paderborn dealt with the “New Virtual Worlds for Music”. Based on case studies such as the avatar artist Hatsune Miku, the ABBA Voyage Music Hall in London and the concert performances of musicians in the video game Fortnite, Beate Flath showed that these virtual music applications are by no means parallel worlds, but are extensions or supplements to real music life. A kind of parallel world was also created by the numerous lockdowns during the COVID 19 pandemic in the past two years. The manifold effects of the pandemic are discussed in the recently published anthology “Rethinking the Music Business”, which was presented by Guy Morrow from the University of Melbourne. The subsequent panel discussion with Guy Morrow, Beate Flath, Zarja Peters and Daniel Nordgård referred to both the new virtual music worlds and the book presentation and tried to trace new developments in music business.

The afternoon, which was also the kick-off event for the conference “Parallel Societies” of IASMP-DACH and the Society for Popular Music Research (GfPM), was entirely dedicated to the topic “Parallel Worlds of Music Streaming”. Hyojung Sun (University of York) and David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds) addressed current developments in the music streaming economy in their presentations. Hyojung Sun’s keynote, entitled “Asset Economy in the Music Streaming Business”, focused on the current acquisitions of music catalogues by the music majors and new players such as the Hipgnosis Songs Fund. David Hesmondhalgh went on to show how the algorithms of music recommendation systems not only determine music selection, but can also foster social inequalities. These effects of the music streaming economy were then discussed in detail by the two keynote speakers with the Vienna-based musician Yasmo and the founder of the label collective Analogsoul, Fabian Schütze, under the direction of Hannes Tschürtz (ink music).

On the previous day, October 19, the Conference Track Day took place, in which researchers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the USA presented and discussed current results of music industry and business research. Among the topics were the production network perspective in the music industry, the functioning of netlabels, the Internet of Musical Things, the live music industry in the Netherlands and the role of blockchain technology and NFTs in the music business.

The 13th International Music Business Research Days traditionally kicked off on the first day – October 18 – with the Young Scholars’ Workshop, in which PhD and master students from Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, the USA and the UK presented their projects and discussed them with mentors. The presentation of the Best Paper Award, this time to Farley J. Joseph from the University of the West Indies/Trinidad & Tobago for his paper entitled “Sustaining innovation: Online concert models in a post-COVID-19 Trinidad & Tobago”, amarked the end of the conference on October 20.

International Journal of Music Business Research – October 2022, vol. 11, nr. 2

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Volume 11, no 2, October 2022

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, p. 45

Kjersti Livesdottir Thorkildsen & Anders Rykkja: Showcase Festivals: Gatekeepers and Bridge Builders in the Music Industries, pp. 47-58

Mihail Miller & Stephan Klingner:  Reframing the Economic Rationale of Music Publishers’ Relationships with Rights Management Entities – Shifting to a Systematic Approach, pp. 59-76

Nadia Whiteman-Charles: The Hustla Playbook: Negotiating the Business Politics of Reggae in the Jamaican Rock Music Scene, pp. 77-87

Book review by Erik Hitters: Richard Osborne and Dave Laing† (eds.) (2021) Music by numbers. The use and abuse of statistics in the music industries, pp. 89-90

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Introducing our guests: Hyojung Sun (University of York, UK)

Dr Hyojung Sun is our keynote speaker in the afternoon of October 20th. She will talk about “Parallel Worlds of Music Streaming” and is also a participant in the following panel discussion with Yasmo (musican, Vienna/Austria), Fabian Schütze (analogsoul, Leipzig/Germany) and David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds, UK) under the guidance of Hannes Tschürtz (ink, Vienna/Austria).

Hyojung Sun is a Lecturer in Business of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of York. With her academic background in Science and Technology Studies (STS, University of Edinburgh, PhD), she explores the contemporary issues impacting popular music such as Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era and Music 2025 – the Music Data Dilemma. These projects have made a significant contribution to the evidence base, gaining industry-wide support, and are acting as a catalyst in bringing industry, academia and Government together.

Prior to joining York, she worked as a research associate in the Creative Industries at Ulster University, working as part of NESTA’s Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) programme. Hyojung has a rich background crossing industry and academia. She worked in the IT industry where she observed the early Internet policy making process which prompted her to go back to education to further study IT policy for her MA at the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. She applied her knowledge in practice during her time at the National Assembly Research Services (NARS) in Korea, as a legislative researcher, helping policy makers and politicians make sound decisions in the field of media, culture and tele-communications.

Introducing our guests: Yasmo (musician, Vienna/Austria)

Yasmo is an Austrian rapper, who will join the discussion on “Parallel Worlds of Music Streaming” from 15:00-16:00 on October 20 in Joseph Haydn Hall of mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Hyojung Sun (University of York, UK), Dave Hesmonhalgh (University of Leeds, UK) and Fabian Schütze (analogsoul, Leipzig/Germany).

Yasmo is a Vienna-based rap artist and poet, who is artistically active since 2007. In 2009, she was the first Austrian artist to win the German speaking U20 Poetry Slam and in 2013 she was the first female artist to win the Austrian Poetry Slam competition. She travels with her texts around the world. In 2019, Yasmo and her band Klangkantine released her fourth studio album Prekariat & Karat, for which she was nominated twice for the Amadeus Austrian Music Award. And she was a co-curator for the Popfest Wien 2019.