International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2020, vol. 9, no. 1

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

Shane Murphy: Music marketing in the digital music industries – An autoethnographic exploration of opportunities and challenges for independent musicians, pp. 7-40

Tim Metcalfe & Nicolas Ruth: Beamer, Benz, or Bentley: Mentions of products in hip hop and R&B music, pp. 41-62

Dexter L. Purnell: Closing the Gap: Understanding the perceptual differences between generations regarding music streaming technology, pp. 63-80

Sam Edrisi: WHERE THE MAGIC PEOPLE GATHERED: The role of Private Members Clubs in the contemporary music economy, pp. 81-117

Book review by Daniel Nordgård: Rockonomics: A backstage tour of what the music industry can teach us about economics and life by Alan B. Krueger, pp. 118-120

 

 

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International Journal of Music Business Research – October 2019, vol. 8, no. 2

The October 2019 issue comprises of three articles covering the full range of music business research. In the first article “Achievement in the South Korean Music Industry” by Björn Boman (Stockholm University) the production system and the industry structures of K-Pop are critically reflected.

In the second article “Giving In: Crowdfunding for musical concerts in India” the authors Anirudh Tagat, Hansika Kapoor & Anurag Tagathighlight the role of crowdfunding for the independent Indian concert business.

In the third and last contribution of this October issue, Tamara Golicnik of the University of Ljubliana researches the application of the balanced scorecard for freelance pianists.

A book review by Martin Ivan Mikulik on “Spotify Teardown: Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music” (Maria Eriksson, Rasmus Fleischer, Anna Johansson, Pelle Snickars & Patrick Vonderau) rounds up the IJMBR’s October 2019 issue.

 

Volume 8, no 2, October 2019

Editorial by Guy Morrow, pp. 4-5

Björn Boman: Achievement in the South Korean Music Industry, pp. 6-26

Anirudh Tagat, Hansika Kapoor & Anurag Tagat: Giving In: Crowdfunding for musical concerts in India, pp. 27-52

Tamara Goličnik: Balanced Scorecard as a pianist’s tool for the implementation and control of business strategies, pp. 53-79

Book review by Martin Ivan Mikulik: Spotify Teardown: Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music by Maria Eriksson, Rasmus Fleischer, Anna Johansson, Pelle Snickars & Patrick Vonderau, pp. 80-82

 

International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2019, vol. 8, no. 1

The April issue 2019 of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR) opens with the article “Digital enabled experience – the listening experience in music streaming”. Bård Tronvoll, Professor of Marketing at the Business School of Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, analyses the drivers as well as the outcomes of music listening on streaming platforms such as Spotify.

The second article – “An analysis of ticket pricing in the primary and secondary concert marketplace” – by Terrance Tompkins of Hofstra University in New York City is a literature survey on the factors that impact the pricing of concert tickets in primary and secondary markets.

Silvia Donker, who was awarded the best paper in the Young Scholars’ Workshop of the 9^th Vienna Music Business Research Days 2018, contributes the third article of this issue. “Networking data. A network analysis of Spotify’s socio-technical related artist network” provides a case study on Spotify’s related artist network of the Dutch drum & bass band Noisia.

This issue rounds up with a book review of “The Music Business and Digital Impacts. Innovations and Disruptions in the Music Industries” by Daniel Nordgård, published as the first volume in the Music Business Research series of Springer Publishing.

 

Volume 8, no 1, April 2019

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, pp. 4-5

Bård Tronvoll: Digital enabled experience – listening experience in music streaming, pp. 6-38

Terrance Tompkins: An analysis of ticket pricing in the primary and secondary concert marketplace, pp. 39-66

Silvia Donker: Networking data. A network analysis of Spotify’s sociotechnical related artist network, pp. 67-101

Book review by Peter Tschmuck: The Music Business and Digital Impacts. Innovations and Disruptions in the Music Industries by Daniel Nordgård, pp. 102-105

 

 

Music Business Research 2018 – in retrospective

Dear all,

The music business highlight of 2018 was Spotify’s IPO on April 3^rd. The public listing of the music streaming service at the New York Stock Exchange was warmly welcomed by the investors with a price per share of US $166 and a market capitalization of US $26.5bn.[1] In the following Spotify’s stock price reached an all-time high of US $196.3 at the end of July – giving it a market capitalization of US $35.3bn. In the meantime, however, Spotify’s stock price lost more than 40 percent and currently the company is worth US $20.6bn.[2] This can only partly be explained by a bearish stock market in the second half of 2018, since the S&P 500 stock exchange index lost just 11.7 percent in the same period. It seems that investors have doubts about Spotify’s business model. The business analysis highlights increasing losses despite a sharply rising number of monthly active users – currently 83m premium subscribers and 109m ad-supported monthly active users.[3] However, the music industry major companies (except Universal Music Group) and the indie label licencing agency MERLIN sold their stakes in Spotify shortly after its IPO at a profit. The recorded music majors are the main beneficiaries of the booming music streaming market, which has grown by 41.1 percent to globally US $6.6bn in 2017.[4]. In-depth analyses of the Universal’s as well as Warner’s business performance highlight that the major companies as well as larger indie labels have increasing revenues and profits due to music streaming.

Beyond Spotify and the booming music streaming, I also want to point at the following music business related topics in 2018:

• Vivendi’s plans to sell at least 50 percent of Universal Music Group to Liberty Media (owner Sirius XM Radio Inc.), which also bought a controlling stake in US music streaming service Pandora in 2018,
• the announcement by Chinese Tencent Holdings of an IPO of its Tencent Music Entertainment Group at the New York Stock Exchange,
• the enactment of the US Music Modernization Act
• and the fight over Article 13 of the pending EU Copyright Directive.

International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2018, vol. 7, no. 1

The first article of this issue of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR), “Exploring bounty and spread: key changes in the Danish music streaming economy” by Rasmus Rex Pedersen examines the structural effects of the transition to the access-based business model of music streaming, at a time when the global music streaming market is growing and developing quickly. The second article is “Blockchain: A new opportunity for record labels” by Opal Gough, which points to the opportunities for the music industry from blockchain technology, especially the chance to develop an international industry database for musical compositions and sound recordings as well as streamline processes, remove inefficiencies and improve cash flow. The concluding article of this issue is “Compulsory licensing in Ecuador’s music industry: A daring strategy within the new intellectual property law in order to regulate music piracy” by Abner Pérez Marín. This paper examines compulsory licensing in relation to the management of music piracy in Ecuador and describes how, in October 2016, Ecuador’s Government replaced its Intellectual Property Code with the Organic Code of the Knowledge’s Social Economy and Innovation, branded as Código Ingenios. Daniel Nordgård’s book review of “Digital Music Distribution: The sociology of online music streams ” by Hendrik Storstein Spilker rounds up the IJMBR’s April 2018 issue.

 

Volume 7, no 1, April 2018

Editorial by Dennis Collopy, pp. 4-5

Rasmus Rex Pedersen: Exploring bounty and spread: key changes in the Danish music streaming economy, pp. 6-25

Opal Gough: Blockchain: A new opportunity for record labels, pp. 26-44

Abner Pérez Marín: Compulsory licensing in Ecuador’s music industry: a daring strategy within the new intellectual property law in order to regulate music piracy, pp. 45-71

Book review by Daniel Nordgård: Digital Music Distribution: The sociology of online music streams by Hendrik Storstein Spilker, pp. 72-74

 

Music Business Research 2017 – in retrospective

Dear readers of music business research blog,

The music streaming boom dominated 2017. Market statistics highlight that music streaming revenue has become the most important income stream for the phonographic industry. The US figures for 2016 highlight a tremendous shift from selling music (CDs and downloads) to accessing music (by streaming services). In the US, music consumers paid for the first time more for music access by ad-supported and paid streaming services (US$ 3.9bn) than for CDs, music downloads and ringtones (US$ 3.5bn). In the UK, the massive growth of music streaming revenue also increased overall recorded music sales in 2016. Gains of £103m in the music streaming segment, thus, compensated not just for the loss of £5.8m of physical sales, but also for the £56m decrease in download sales in a year-to-year comparison, as a long-term analysis of the UK recording sales indicates. We can, thus, expect a further massive growth of music streaming revenue in 2017 also on markets with a still strong physical segment such as Germany.

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

 

Music Business Research 2016 – in retrospective

Dear readers of the music business research blog,

2016 seems to be the pivotal year in the recorded music industry. Although no annual statistics have been published until yet, we can take it for granted that the positive trend of 2015 continued in 2016. In 2015, the global recorded music market expanded by 3.4%. The US-market slightly grew by 0.9% and the German recorded music sales even increased by 4.4%.

The booming music streaming market was of course the main driver for the economic recovery of the recorded music business in 2015 and we can expect a further growth in 2016 and the upcoming year. The revenue growth of the streaming business compensated for the decline in CD sales, despite decreasing music download sales as highlighted in “The fate of the CD – an international CD-market analysis”. However, an in-depth analysis of the statistics unveils very different market dynamics in various countries. Whereas music streaming is the main business of the recorded music industry in Scandinavia, CD sales are still relevant in Germany and in Japan (see “The Music Streaming Market Revisited, 2011-2015”).

International Journal of Music Business Research – October 2016, vol. 5, no. 2

The new issue of the International Journal of Music Business Research includes three papers that cover music streaming psychology, the relevance of aesthetic preferences in record labels and the importance of narrative as a tool in recording artist biographies. “The Psychology of Music Streaming – Exploring Music Listeners’ motivations To Favour Access over Ownership” by Geoff Luck (Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Jyväskylä) focuses on streaming’s radical impact on the way we now experience music.  The change from ownership to on-demand access of a virtually unlimited amount of music challenges previous notions of how music is defined, experienced and consumed. “Aesthetic preferences and aesthetic ‘agnosticism’ among managers in music organisations: is liking projects important?” by Paul Saintilan (Director of Macleay and Collarts colleges in Australia) is pertinent to the predominately ‘pull’ nature of the modern streaming based market. The paper examines how senior managers within the large music organisations deal with their individual aesthetic preferences in their decision making when developing and marketing new work? “Why narratives are better than chronicles of achievement in musicians’ biographies” by Peter Gilks (Entertainment Management department at I-Shou University in Taiwan), is relevant to better understanding modern music consumer behaviour including new music discovery and the reliance of many online music services such as Spotify on recording artist biographies. The paper draws on Simon Frith’s theory that music appreciation involves identification with broader cultural narratives and Bruner’s theory that identities are narratively constructed.

 

Volume 5, no 2, October 2016

Editorial by Dennis Collopy, pp. 4-5

Paul Saintilan: Aesthetic preferences and aesthetic ‘agnosticism’ among managers in music organisations: is liking projects important?, pp. 6-25

Peter Gilks: Constructing authentic identities: why narratives are better than chronicles of achievement in musicians’ biographies, pp. 26-45

Geoff Luck: The psychology of streaming: exploring music listeners’ motivations to favour access over ownership, pp. 46-61

 

 

Music Business Research 2015 – in retrospective

Dear readers of the music business research blog,

2015 Music streaming was again the main topic in the music business. In June, Apple Inc. introduced the long rumoured music streaming portal Apple Music to the public. Instead of a freemium tier Apple Music is built around an online radio station – Beats 1 – and enables direct contact between musicians and fans by Artist Connect. Nevertheless, Taylor Swift was not amused. She threatened to withdraw her music catalogue from Apple Music as long as no licensing fees are paid to rights holders in the initial trail period. Apple’s VP of iTunes, Eddy Cue, immediately responded by Twitter to announce that Apple Inc. has changed its mind and “will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period”. However, the conflict shows that the discussion on music streaming payments to artists will continue in 2016. An analysis on the blog already addressed that problem – Music Streaming Revisited – the Problem of Income Distribution – and even superstars cannot afford a living from music streaming revenues: Music Streaming Revisited – The Superstars’ Music Streaming Income. It was also highlighted on the blog that the main winners of the music streaming boom are the major recorded music labels which can successfully market their catalogues: Who Benefits from Spotify & Co.?

Before Apple Music was introduced to the public, premium music streaming service Tidal was launched by Jay-Z and 16 further superstars of the music business in March 2015. It remains to be seen if the music fans are prepared to pay a monthly fee of US $19.99 for high fidelity music streaming. The number of subscribers since Tidal’s launch tells a different story.

In November 2015, Google unveiled the first details on YouTube Red. YouTube Red is the successor of Music Key, which never made it out of the beta version. The new streaming service aims to successfully compete with Spotify & Co. 2016 will show if the dreams will come true.

It is striking, however, that all the new music streaming services lack a freemium tier. This nurtures speculations that the end of free music streaming is near what would be applauded by high ranking music industry representatives who regularly clamoured the dismissal of Freemium music streaming models in 2015. It is, however, questionable if a stop of free music streaming is the golden rule for the music business since most of the music streaming markets are not fully developed yet as highlighted in a blog entry: Music Streaming Revisited – the International Music Streaming Market 2014.

Although music streaming seems to stabilize the recorded music markets – see e.g. U.S. and Germany – the first signs of a market consolidations has become visible. The German music streaming pioneer Simfy had to close down and the U.S. based streaming platform rdio went bankrupt in 2015.

Investors, however, do not bet on music streaming services anymore as the panel discussion “Financing Music in the Digital Age” within the 6^th Vienna Music Business Research Days highlighted. The international music business research conference that again was held at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in cooperation with Waves Vienna Festival & Conference also addressed the question in a presentation and panel discussion if streaming is a relevant revenue source for opera houses and concert halls. And the economic relevance of crowdfunding for the music business was analysed in a keynote talk too.