International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2017, vol. 6, no. 1

This April 2017 issue of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR) features one theoretical and two empirical papers on different aspects of music business research.

In the first article “A methodology for cultural music business research”, Lorenz Grünewald-Schukalla of the University of Applied Sciences of Media, Communication and Management Berlin proposes a promising methodology for cultural music business research. In the second article – “The impact of digitalisation on the recorded music consumption. An Estonian case study” – Juko-Mart Kõlar of the Estonian Business School in Tallinn analyses disparities in recorded music consumption among different age and gender groups in Estonia. The third article by Arilova A. Randrianasolo of the Boler School of Business at the John Carroll University in Ohio and Jeremiah Sala of the University of Missouri in Saint Louis link musicological analyses with econometrics. In “Song product characteristics and music commercial performance”, they investigate how tempo, song key and genre influence a song’s commercial performance. The book review by Daniel Nordgård of “The New Music Industries: Disruption and Discovery” by Diane Hughes, Guy Morrow, Sarah Keith and Mark L. Evans of Macquarie University Sydney rounds up the IJMBR’s April 2017 issue.

 

Volume 6, no 1, April 2017

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, pp. 4-5

Lorenz Grünewald-Schukalla: A methodology for cultural music business research, pp. 6-34

Juko-Mart Kõlar: The impact of digitalisation on the recorded music consumption. An Estonian case study, pp. 35-50

Arilova A. Randrianasolo & Jeremiah Sala: Song product characteristics and music commercial performance, pp. 51-75

Book review by Daniel Nordgård: The New Music Industries: Disruption and Discovery by Diane Hughes, Guy Morrow, Sarah Keith and Mark L. Evans, pp. 76-78

 

Advertisement

Call-for-Papers: 8th Vienna Music Business Research Days, September 12-14, 2017

The 8th Vienna Music Business Research Days will be held at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Vienna/Austria) from 12-14 September 2017. The overall topic of the next conference is the question “Unchaining the Digital Music Business?”. Digitization of the music industry has not reduced the market and gatekeeping power of the industry’s intermediaries as predicted by the long-tail and disintermediation hypotheses. However, it seems that the digital music business has become a blockbuster business with new powerful players appearing on the scene (e.g. Apple, Google/YouTube, Amazon). However, innovations such as the blockchain technology again challenge the newly established value-added network by providing tools for artists to circumvent intermediaries. Thus, the 8th Vienna Music Business Resarch Days will highlight the current developments with new research findings.

The call-for-papers for the conference track day on September 13, 2017 encourage all researchers (from post-doc level on) to submit paper proposals on the broad field of music business research including for e.g.:

• 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;
• Gender and diversity in the music business;
• 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;
• etc.

Please send an abstract of your proposal to vmbrdays@gmail.com no later than March 31, 2017.

 

Other important dates:

May 15, 2017: Notification of acceptance

July 31, 2017: Submission deadline for full papers

September 13, 2017: Conference track day

September 14, 2017: Conference day for invited speakers on “Unchaining the Digital Music Business?”

 

Registration:

Registration fee – early bird (until July 31, 2017): 175,- Euro

Registration fee:                                                    225,- Euro

End of registration (no refund after this date):      August 31, 2017

 

For students at all levels of the MA & PhD a doctoral colloquium (7^th Young Scholars’ Workshop) will be held as part of the 8^th Vienna Music Business Research Days on September 12, 2017. Find a separate call for papers here.

 

Contact:

Dagmar Abfalter (mailto: vmbrdays@gmail.com)

Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM)

University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna

Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria

Tel.: +43-1-71155-3418

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

 

 

 

The recorded music market in the US, 2000-2013

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently published the sales figures (shipment figures) for the recorded music market in the US for 2013. Accordingly, digital sales increased by 7.6 percent to US$ 4.36bn from 2012 to 2013. Nevertheless, overall sales (digital and physical) slightly decreased by 0.3 percent from US$ 7.016bn to US$ 6.996bn in 2013. Thus, the sales decline of 12.3 percent (US$ -325m) in the physical product (CD, vinyl, DVD, SACD) could not be compensated by the growth of the digital music market. All in all, digital music sales accounted for 64 percent of the overall recorded music sales in 2013.

The strong increase of digital music sales is fueled by the booming music streaming and subscription segment, which grew 39 percent in 2013, generating US$1.4bn in revenue. However, single track download sales shrank by 3.3 percent (US$ -54.6m) in the same period. Digital album sales have slightly increased by 2.4 percent or US$ 28.7m from 2012 to 2013. These figures seem to indicate a cannibalizing effect of music streaming on download sales, even if we consider recent price cuts by digital music distributors.

The following analysis does not only highlight the digitization process of the recorded music market in the US in past thirteen years, but also the tremendous change of the digital music market segment.