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.

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Introducing our guest: Beate Flath (University of Paderborn, Germany)

Photo credit: Harald Morsch

Beate Flath is our keynote speaker on “New Virtual Worlds for Music” on October 20 in the 13th International Music Business Research Days at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and she will also join the following morning panel on “Rethinking the Music Business” with Guy Morrow (University of Melbourne, Australia), Zaria Peters (IESA Paris, France) and Daniel Nordgård (University of Agder, Norway).

Prof. Dr. Beate Flath studied musicology, art history, and business administration at the University of Graz, where she also received her doctoral degree in musicology. She conducted research at the University of Graz, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and Paderborn University. Since 2021, she has been a Professor of Event Management with a focus on pop music cultures and digital media cultures at Paderborn University. Her research interests are transdisciplinary event studies, socio-political and cultural-political dimensions of event management, co-creation and participation in the context of digital media, and music business research as music culture research.

Selection of latest publications:

Beate Flath, Christoph Jacke & Manuel Troike (eds.) (2022), Transformational POP. Transitions, Breaks, and Crises in Popular Music (Studies) (~Vibes – The IASPM D-A-CH Series 2)

Beate Flath & Christoph Jacke (eds.) (2022), PopEventKulturen zwischen Management und Politik. Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven, Bielefeld: transcript

Beate Flath, Ina Heinrich, Christoph Jacke, Heinrich Klingmann & Maryam Momen Pour Tafreshi (eds.) (2022), Druckwellen. Eskalationskulturen und Kultureskalationen in Pop, Gesellschaft und Politik, Bielefeld: transcript

Beate Flath & Maryam Momen Pour Tafreshi (2021), Work-related practices of local managers of live music events in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and their impact on cultural participation. Arts and the Market, Vol. 11, No. 2, 109-122.

Further information: www.beateflath.net

The 9th Vienna Music Business Research Days in Retrospective

The 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Music Life Is Live” gathered again renown music business researchers and music business professionals at the University of Music and Performing Arts to discuss the “Political Economics of Music Festivals” and “The International Concert and Touring Business”.

The invited conference day of the Vienna Music Business Research Days 2018 was opened by the president of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Ulrike Sych, with a welcome address to the conference participants and the audience.

Introducing our guests: Beate Flath (University of Paderborn)

“Music Life Is Live” is the main topic of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days from Sep. 12-14, 2018. In presentations and discussions music business representatives and music business researchers focus this time on the political economy of music festivals and the economics of the international concert and touring business. Find the program here.

Beate Flath gives the morning keynote on “The Political Economics of Music Festivals” on September 14 from 9:15-9:45 in Joseph Haydn-Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and then moderates a panel discussion with Axel Ballreich (LiveKomm, Hamburg) Hannah Crepaz (Osterfestival Tirol, Austria), Peter Smidt (Eurosonic Noorderslag Festival, Netherlands), Martin Cloonan (University of Turku , Finland), Detlef Schwarte (Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg, Germany)

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Beate Flath studied musicology, art history and business administration at the University of Graz, Austria. Since 2015 she is junior professor for event management at Paderborn University, Germany; Current publication (in progress): Beate Flath, Martin Cloonan & Adam Behr (eds.) IASPM-journal – Special Issue: Pop music festivals and (cultural) policies (9/1, 2019), More information: www.beateflath.net.

 

 

International Journal of Music Business Research – October 2015, vol. 4, no. 2

For the first time the IJMBR is published  by the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA) that was founded on Oct. 2nd, 2015 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna/Austria. The October 2015 issue opens with a fundamental article, “Life is live: Experiencing music in the digital age”, by Beate Flath of University of Paderborn/Germany. She highlights how digitisation has dramatically changed the experience of music reception. Based on Alvin Toffler’s concept of prosumption, she argues that the separation between active music producers and passive music consumers has become porous. José M. Alvarez-Monzoncillo and Juan Calvi of the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid/Spain contribute the second article on “Music consumption in Spain: From analogue to digital in the shaping of music”. They argue that consumption of digital music takes place in a new type of mass market, that is even more concentrated than in the decades before. They based their arguments on a comparative study indicating that there is no difference between music consumed on digital channels, on the radio or in physical formats. The October issue closes with “The Evolution of music blogs: From a fan’s passion to a promotional outlet” by Beatrice Jetto of the University of Technology and Charles Sturt University in Sydney/Australia. She argues that record labels “went from suing blogs for digital copyright infringements to collaborating with them for the promotion of their artists”. She highlights four different phases in the evolution of music blogging: (1) the amateur phase; (2) the diversification phase; (3) the promotional phase and (4) the professional phase.

 

Volume 4, no 2, October 2015

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, pp. 4-6

Beate Flath: Life is live: Experiencing music in the digital age, pp. 7-26

José María Álvarez Monzoncillo & Juan Calvi: Music consumption in Spain: From analogue to digital in the shaping of music, pp. 27-48

Beatrice Jetto: The evolution of music blogs: From a fan’s passion to a promotional outlet, pp. 49-72

 

 

 

5th Vienna Music Business Research Days in Retrospective

The 5th Vienna Music Business Research Days were devoted to the question “How to Monetize Music in the Digital Age”? Academics and business professionals  answered this questions from different perspectives. The VMBR-Days 2014 were held in cooperation with the Waves Vienna Music Festival & Conference and attracted an even larger international audience than in the years before. On Oct 3rd, a conference track day complemented the invited conference day on Oct 2nd for the first time. Academics from Austria, Australia, Brasil, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom presented recent findings of a wide range of music business research topics.

The Young Scholars’ Workshop gathered for the fourth time students and mentors/discussants from more than 10 countries to discuss the findings a papers derived from master and PhD theses (see also the webpage of the Young Scholars’ Workshop 2014).

For a detailed coverage of the whole conference– including most of the papers and presentation slides as well as the audio streams of all talks and discussions of Oct 2nd – please click here.