The April issue 2020 of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR) gathers for the first time four full articles on a broad variety of music business research topics. The journal issue opens with “Music marketing in the digital music industries – An autoethnographic exploration of opportunities and challenges for independent musicians” by Shane Murphy of Torrens University in Sydney/Australia. Through the use of an autoethnographic research method, Shane Murphy provides insights from the micro-perspective of an independent musician into the major major structural transformations that have occurred in the music business post-digitisation.
Tim Metcalfe & Nicolas Ruth (Goldsmiths College in London/UK) contribute the second article “Beamer, Benz, or Bentley: Mentions of products in hip hop and R&B music”. According to this article, cars, fashion and alcohol are the types of products most frequently mentioned in hip hop and R&B lyrics.
The third article by Dexter Purnell (MacMurray College, Jacksonville/US) “Closing the Gap: Understanding the Perceptual Differences Between Generations Regarding Music Streaming Technology” – focuses on the impact of music streaming technology and argues that, whilst music streaming has become the preferred method for recorded music consumption, there appears to be generational differences in the utilisation rate of the technology.
The fourth article “Where the magic people gathered The Role of Private Members Clubs in the Contemporary Music Economy” by Sam Edrisi (King’s College London and University of Westminster, London/UK) is the award winning paper of the Young Scholars’ Workshop 2019. It explores the increased popularity of a new type of private member club aimed at a crowd, which identifies with entrepreneurialism, independence, and creativity.
This issue rounds up with a book review by Daniel Nordgård of “Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us about Economics and Life” by Alan B. Krueger, who sadly passed away in March 2019. “Rockonomics” was Alan’s last book in an outstanding body of works on economic issues related to education, labor markets and income distribution.
Volume 9, no 1, April 2020
Editorial by Dennis Collopy & Guy Morrow, pp. 4-6
Music Business Research 
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