The Vienna Music Business Research Days conference celebrates its 10th birthday this year by looking into the past to learn more about the future of the music business. In the past ten years the VMBR-Days were a platform for forward looking and controversial music industry topics. In 2011, Dagfinn Bach highlighted the high CO2 emissions of music streaming compared to music downloads – a topic, which has become highly relevant in the times of climate change. In the same year the founder of the German music streaming service Simfy, Steffen Wicker, and then PRS for Music chief economist, Will Page, who later joined Spotify, discussed if music streaming would be the next big thing in the music industry. In 2013, Mike Michalke introduced the project of a creative commons collecting society, which was established a few years later as the Cultural Commons Collecting Society (C3S) in Germany. Also in 2013 international experts, among them the doyen of intellectual property rights research, Adolf Dietz, discussed how copyright legislation has to be adapted to new technological and social challenges. Some of the proposals, which were discussed in Vienna, later entered the recently enacted EU Copyright Directive. In 2015, alternative instruments to finance music projects such as crowdfunding, angel investment and start-up funding, which are common practice now, were highlighted by keynotes and panel discussions. In 2017, the blockchain technology and its impact on the music business was in the focus of the 8th Vienna Music Business Research Days. And further topics such as the live music and concert business, self-management of artists, new music consumption behavior and music file sharing were discussed in the past years.
In 2019, some of the topics will be resumed in the 10th anniversary conference. After a keynote by London-based copyright lawyer Cliff Fluet of Lewis Silkin LLP, he will discuss on “The Future of Music Copyright” with Karl Ryan (Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google UK), Ros Lynch (Intellectual Property Office, London, UK) and Steve Stewart (vezt, Los Angeles, USA).
The former COO of Sony/BMG and Australian start-up investor Michael Smellie will look back in the recent history of the music industry by highlighting the music industry’s “Seven Deadly Sins”. In the afternoon, Paul O’Hagan (Ulster University, UK) and music manager Peter Jenner (Pink Floyd, The Clash, Billy Bragg) will discuss the future of artist contracts in the recorded music business, before Peter will join Dennis Collopy (University of Hertfordshire, UK) to present the results of the “Music 2025” project, which was introduced by them to the public at the Vienna Music Business Research Days 2014. Then the founder of the British music streaming service 7digital, Pete Downton, will highlight the drivers of growth of music streaming. In the following panel discussion on the “Future of the Music Business – What’s Next after Music Streaming?”, Pete will exchange thoughts with music industry consultant Rebecca Brook (London, UK) communications researcher Phil Graham (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia) and start-up investor Michael Smellie (Brisbane, Australia).
The Vienna Music Business research Days will be opened on Sep. 11th with the Young Scholars’ Workshop for master and PhD students to present their research to renown music business researchers in a closed workshop atmosphere. On Sep. 12th scientists from all around the world will present their research finding on different music business/industry topics (see program).
Tickets for September 12-13, 2019: https://ntry.at/vmbrd2019
Promotion YouTube video: https://youtu.be/GkgAZX5uS_M
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViennaMusicBusinessResearchDays/
Live video-stream of the last conference day on Sep. 13th, 9:00-17:30 CEST: https://live.mdw.ac.at/VMBRD_2019
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