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 guests: Daniel Nordgård (University of Agder, Norway)

Photo: Jørund Pedersen 2021

Daniel Nordgård is the co-editor of the recently published book Rethinking the Music Business, which will be be presented by him along with Guy Morrow (University of Melbourne) in the conference’s morning session of October 20, 2022 at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Daniel Nordgård is associate professor at the University of Agder and also the author of the book The Music Business and Digital Impacts (2018). He has a broad background from music, foremost as musician and artist, but also has experience from concert promotion and festival management. Nordgård teaches music business and management at the University of Agder. His research is very much devoted to the music industry and the cultural industries, with a special emphasis on digital change. Nordgård holds several positions in different boards, nationally and internationally, including Gramo (Norwegian collecting society for neighboring rights), The Norwegian Film Institute, Gramart (The Norwegian featured artist organization). He also sits on the board of the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA).

Introducing our guest: Guy Morrow (University of Melbourne, Australia)

Dr Guy Morrow will present the new book “Rethinking the Music Business. Music Contexts, Rights, Data, and COVID-19“, which he has co-edited with Daniel Nordgård and Peter Tschmuck. He is also a participant in the following panel discussion with Beate Flath (University of Paderborn, Germany), Zaria Peters (IESA Paris, France) and Daniel Nordgård (University of Agder, Norway).

On October 19 he will give also a presentation entitled “Music artist managers: Remuneration, equity, and sustainability in the popular music ecology”.

Guy Morrow a Senior Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management at the University of Melbourne. He has expertise in artist management with a research focus on the music business.

Guy’s current contract research project involves exploring the shifting ground beneath music artist manager remuneration for the Association of Artist Managers in Australia. Using cultural economic theory relating to incentives, this project is addressing questions of music artist manager motivation, remuneration and equity stakes within the new music industries. It is addressing the question of whether there is a music artist manager exodus from the music industries and, if there is one, whether this ‘brain drain’ could be addressed by providing better remuneration for music artist managers through deal structures that give them equity.

Guy’s is the author of the books ‘Designing the Music Business: Design Culture, Music Video and Virtual Reality‘ (Springer, 2020) and ‘Artist Management: Agility in the Creative and Cultural Industries‘ (Routledge, 2018) and he is board member and Secretary of the International Music Business Research Association  (IMBRA).

Guy also has a vast record of achievement in the creative and cultural industries and has worked with many of Australia’s best-known musicians within various popular music scenes through direct management, and also through music and design work. Along with his clients, Guy has received five Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards, as well as Gold and Platinum Awards from ARIA.

International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2022, vol. 11, nr. 1

Volume 11, no 1, April 2022

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, p. 1

Frederik Juul Jensen: The Impact of Article 17 – A Study into its Effects on the Music Industry’s Innovation Processes, pp. 3-17

Boyang An:  Challenge in China’s Digital Music Industry: How the Protection of Music Copyright Causes Oligopoly, pp. 19-27

Arthur Ellinger & John Markey: Stream of Conscience? Live Music Streaming: Utility, Capital and Control, pp. 29-42

Book review by Carsten Winter: Guy Morrow (2020): Designing the Music Business: Design Culture, Music Video and Virtual Reality, Springer Music Business Research book series, pp. 43-44

Call-for Papers: Rethinking the Music Business – Music Contexts, Rights, Data and COVID-19

Call for chapters for an edited volume to be submitted to Springer’s Music Business Research Series

Editors
Guy Morrow (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Daniel Nordgård (University of Agder, Norway)
Peter Tschmuck (University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria)

 

COVID-19 had, and is having, a global impact on health, communities and the economy. As a result of COVID-19, music festivals, gigs and events were cancelled or postponed across the world. This directly affected the incomes and practices of many artists and the revenue for many entities in the music business. Despite this crisis however, there are pre-existing trends in the music business – the rise of the streaming economy, technological change (virtual and augmented reality, blockchain etc.), new copyright legislation etc. Some of these trends were impacted by the COVID-19 crisis while others were not.

 

This edited volume will therefore be structured in two parts. The first part will feature more general perspectives and the second will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on the music business. This edited volume thus welcomes chapters that address issues within the music business before, during and after COVID-19.

 

The volume will be composed of 8000 word chapters (including footnotes and references), an Introduction by the editors and an Afterword.

– Deadline for submission of abstracts (300-400 words) and bio notes (100 words): 1 December 2020
– Notification of acceptance: 15 January 2021

– Book proposal submission: 20 January 2021
– Book contracted: February 2021
– First book chapter draft: 30 July 2021

 

Initial expressions of interest, enquiries and/or abstracts should be submitted to editors: Guy Morrow (guy.morrow@unimelb.edu.au), Daniel Nordgård (daniel.nordgard@uia.no) and Peter Tschmuck (Tschmuck@mdw.ac.at)

 

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

 

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.

Book Review: Music Business and the Experience Economy. The Australasian Case

“Music Business and the Experience Economy” is the first book on the music business in Australasia from an academic perspective. In a cross-disciplinary approach, the authors deal with a wide-range of topics concerning the production, distribution and consumption in the digital age. The interrelationship of legal, aesthetic and economic aspects in the production of music in Australasia is also highlighted as well as the emergence of new business models, the role of music file sharing, and the live music sector. In addition, the impact of the digital revolution on music experience and valuation, the role of music for sports and branding, and last but not least the developments of tertiary music education, are discussed from different perspectives.

Peter Tschmuck, Philip L. Pearce and Steven Campbell (eds.), 2013, Music Business and the Experience Economy. The Australasian Case. Heidelberg & New York: Springer, ISBN: 978-3-642-27897-6.

For a more detailed book review please click here for further reading.