The Music Industry’s Fight Against Napster – Part 2: The “War of Expertise”

On December 6, 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued the first file sharing platform Napster for copyright infringment. This was the start of a still ongoing campaign against file-sharing and related practises. On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of RIAA’s lawsuit against Napster, I would like to retell the story of Napster relying on Joseph Menn’s book “all that rave. The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster” (2003) as well as on court documents and press articles.

In the second part the studies and survey commissioned by the music industry as well as by Napster are highlighted that eventually were decisive in the Napster case. The studies also mark the starting point of a still ongoing scientific research on the impact of file-sharing on recorded music sales (see also part 1-25 of the blog series “How Bad is File-Sharing?”

The Music Industry’s Fight Against Napster – Part 1: Napster’s Rise to Fame

On December 6, 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued the first file sharing platform Napster for copyright infringment. This was the start of a still ongoing campaign against file-sharing and related practises. On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of RIAA’s lawsuit against Napster, I would like to retell the story of Napster relying on Joseph Menn’s book “all that rave. The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster” (2003) as well as on court documents and press articles.

In part 1 Napster’s rise to fame until RIAA’s filing its lawsuit against Napster is highlighted.

Call-for-papers: 6th Vienna Music Business Research Days

The 6^th Vienna Music Business Research Days will be held at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, from September 29 to October 01, 2015.

Music Business Research is an inter-discipline at the intersection of economic, artistic, cultural, social, legal, technological and further developments which contribute to the creation/production, dissemination/ distribution and reception/consumption of music. This interdisciplinary nature calls for methodological multiplicity and is open to scholars from all scientific areas.

The conference organizers invite scholars (from the postdoctoral level on) who have a research focus on music business/industry related topics to submit a paper proposal for the conference day on September 30, 2015: pdf-version of the call-for-papers

Indicative themes on all music business research areas, include, but not limited to:

• Past, current and future developments in the music industry (recorded music industry, live music sector, music publishing, music retailing and wholesaling, music instruments industry etc.);
• Music market research and music charts research;
• The economic and social situation of musicians as well as the labor market for musicians;
• The management of musicians and music institutions;
• The marketing of music;
• Music branding and sponsoring;
• Public and private funding of the music sector (including new forms of music funding such as crowdfunding);
• Case studies on music companies and other music institutions;
• Legal aspects of the music business (contracts, copyright, competition law/policy etc.);
• Music licensing and collecting societies;
• Music media (radio, TV, online-based media etc.);
• Economic aspects of music genres (classical, pop/rock, jazz, world music markets etc.);
• Business-related music education;
• Music export;

Gender issues can be included in almost every research topic mentioned above.

For further information , please click here:

Call-for-papers: Young Scholars’ Workshop 2015

The Young Scholars’ Workshop (September 29, 2015), as part of the 6^th Vienna Music Business Research Days (Vienna, Austria), 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. There are many questions that call for investigation and need to be discussed in music business research, for example:

• What drives innovation in the music business sector?
• How can we scientifically understand and differentiate music business models?
• What do we know about critical success factors? Have success factors changed over time – and has music business (entrepreneurship) changed in general?
• What rationalities affect this very “personal” industry?
• Did the crisis change the management of music business?
• What can we learn about the customer’s willingness to pay for music recordings or related goods?
• Who will control the future music market, e.g., startups or Apple?
• How can we understand the role of brands and the music industry?
• And how can music business research support efforts for innovative business models?

 

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

The workshop organizers Prof. Dr. Carsten Winter (Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media) and Prof. Dr. Peter Tschmuck (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) 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.

Abstracts (of about 1,000 characters) are due by April 30, 2015, and full papers (15-30 pages) are due by August 31, 2015. Only abstracts and papers submitted on time will be considered.

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 June 1, 2015, at the latest.

Please email your submission to viennamusicresearch@hmkw.de

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).

Click here for a pdf-version of the call-for-papers

 

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