Is piracy ‘good’ or ‘bad’? – guest post by Steven Brown

Steven Brown is a Doctoral Research Student at Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. His mixed-methods research into music piracy has appeared in diverse publications including The Psychologist,  Musicae Scientae, and Convergence.

In his guest post he reflects his long experience in the psychology in music piracy research to question if piracy is economically ‘bad’ or ‘good’. He comes to the conslusion that the answer is strongly dependent on the methodology used in the research. This is in line with my findings in the blog series “How Bad is Music File Sharing?”

Read more on Steven’s thoughts on music file sharing research here:

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A Brief History of China’s Music Industry – Part 4: The Contemporary Digital Music Industry in China

The music industry of China is an unknown continent from a Western music business research perspective. Therefore it is very meritorious that John Fangjun Li, a lecturer and PhD candidate (2008-2012) at Macquarie University, provides one of the first overviews of the history of China’s music industry for an international readership. In a series of four blog contributions he highlights the development of the recorded music industry in more than 100 years from the final period of Imperial China to the current Peoples Republic of China. He gives an overview of the impact of Western major recorded music companies in the first half of the 20th century and of the emergence of serveral state operated but also privately owned Chinese companies after the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and other large cities. He also highlights the current digital music business in China that has been dominating the recorded music industry since the the mid 2000s.

In the fourth and final part of the series on China’s music industry, John Fangjun Li highlights the current situation in the recorded music industry in China, which is totally occupied by digital online and mobile music services.

A Brief History of China’s Music Industry – Part 3: The Recorded Music Industry in China From the 1950s to the Early 2000s

The music industry of China is an unknown continent from a Western music business research perspective. Therefore it is very meritorious that John Fangjun Li, a lecturer and PhD candidate (2008-2012) at Macquarie University, provides one of the first overviews of the history of China’s music industry for an international readership. In a series of four blog contributions he highlights the development of the recorded music industry in more than 100 years from the final period of Imperial China to the current Peoples Republic of China. He gives an overview of the impact of Western major recorded music companies in the first half of the 20th century and of the emergence of serveral state operated but also privately owned Chinese companies after the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and other large cities. He also highlights the current digital music business in China that has been dominating the recorded music industry since the the mid 2000s.

This part on the Chinese music industry by John Fangjun Li covers the second half of the 20th century after the emergence of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 over the period of the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), China’s Economic Reform and Opening-up Policy until the current digital music industry in China.

A Brief History of China’s Music Industry – Part 2: The Recorded Music Industry in China From the Early 1900s to the Late 1940s

The music industry of China is an unknown continent from a Western music business research perspective. Therefore it is very meritorious that John Fangjun Li, a lecturer and PhD candidate (2008-2012) at Macquarie University, provides one of the first overviews of the history of China’s music industry for an international readership. In a series of four blog contributions he highlights the development of the recorded music industry in more than 100 years from the final period of Imperial China to the current Peoples Republic of China. He gives an overview of the impact of Western major recorded music companies in the first half of the 20th century and of the emergence of serveral state operated but also privately owned Chinese companies after the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and other large cities. He also highlights the current digital music business in China that has been dominating the recorded music industry since the the mid 2000s.

In part 2, John Fangjun Li highlights the first years of the emerging music industry in China and discusses the role of Western music industry conglomerates until the late 1940s when the Peoples Republic of China was founded.

 

A Brief History of China’s Music Industry – Part 1: Introduction

The music industry of China is an unknown continent from a Western music business research perspective. Therefore it is very meritorious that John Fangjun Li, a lecturer and PhD candidate (2008-2012) at Macquarie University, provides one of the first overviews of the history of China’s music industry for an international readership. In a series of four blog contributions he highlights the development of the recorded music industry in more than 100 years from the final period of Imperial China  to the current Peoples Republic of China. He gives an overview of the impact of Western major recorded music companies in the first half of the 20th century and of the emergence of serveral state operated but also privately owned Chinese companies after the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and other large cities. He also highlights the current digital music business in China that has been dominating the recorded music industry since the the mid 2000s.

In the introductory chapter, John Fangjun Li defines the research field and outlines his concept of “music industry” in China, in which covergence of technology, politics and cultural expression plays a crucial role.

 

The Early Recording Industry in the Czech Lands – Part 4

Guest post by Daniel Matoušek

Until now, there has not been much literature on the recording industry in the former Czechoslovakia.  Particularly the history after the 1950s is not mapped at all yet. However, there are two books about the early music industry in the Czech lands that stand out in scope and in depth of detail: “Fonogram I” and “Fonogram II” by Czech record collector and sound industry historian Gabriel Gössel. The following short series of four articles is thus a look into the history of early gramophone industry in the Czech lands as described in these two volumes.

This last part examines the wartime period and the complicated situation in the post-war years. From 1939 to 1945, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was occupied by the national socialist German Reich and was officially renamed to Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, whose economy was directly controlled by the nazi regime. With the rise of the Communist party and the pressure towards nationalization after the war all recording companies were merged into a single state-owned enterprise called “The Gramophone Works”. The way of the Czechoslovakian music industry through the years of occupation and to post-war nationalization is examined in the following.

The Early Recording Industry in the Czech Lands – Part 3

Guest post by Daniel Matoušek

Until now, there has not been much literature on the recording industry in the former Czechoslovakia.  Particularly the history after the 1950s is not mapped at all yet. However, there are two books about the early music industry in the Czech lands that stand out in scope and in depth of detail: “Fonogram I” and “Fonogram II” by Czech record collector and sound industry historian Gabriel Gössel. The following short series of four articles is thus a look into the history of early gramophone industry in the Czech lands as described in these two volumes.

This third part covers the 1930s, when Czechoslovakia was suffered from world economic crisis which led to the oligopolization of the music industry.

The Early Recording Industry in the Czech Lands – Part 2

Guest post by Daniel Matoušek

Until now, there has not been much literature on the recording industry in the former Czechoslovakia.  Particularly the history after the 1950s is not mapped at all yet. However, there are two books about the early music industry in the Czech lands that stand out in scope and in depth of detail: “Fonogram I” and “Fonogram II” by Czech record collector and sound industry historian Gabriel Gössel. The following short series of four articles is thus a look into the history of early gramophone industry in the Czech lands as described in these two volumes.

This second part looks at the period of 1920s, when Czechoslovakia emerged as  an independent state with a flourishing market economy, but became also a victim of the Great Depression at the end of the decade.

The Early Recording Industry in the Czech Lands – Part 1

Guest post by Daniel Matoušek

Until now, there has not been much literature on the recording industry in the former Czechoslovakia.  Particularly the history after the 1950s is not mapped at all yet. However, there are two books about the early music industry in the Czech lands that stand out in scope and in depth of detail: “Fonogram I” and “Fonogram II” by Czech record collector and sound industry historian Gabriel Gössel. The following short series of four articles is thus a look into the history of early gramophone industry in the Czech lands as described in these two volumes.

The first part deals with the very beginnings of a Czech recording industry before World War I, a time span when the Czech lands – Bohemia and Moravia – still belonged to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.