International Journal of Music Business Research – April 2023, vol. 12, nr. 1

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Volume 12, no 1, April 2023

Editorial by Peter Tschmuck, p. 1

Benjamin Oduro Arhin, Mark Millas Coffie, Hope Senalor Konu & Edwin Ekow Annan Ferguson: Split Sheets in Ghanaian Recording Studios, pp. 3-12

William E. Tsitsos & R. Saylor Breckenridge: The Work of Reproduction in the Age of Digital Art: The Role of ‘Aura’ in the Revitalisation of Vinyl Records and Cassettes, pp. 13-23

Farley J. Joseph: Sustaining Innovation: Digital Live Music Models in a Post-COVID-19 Trinidad and Tobago, pp. 25-41

Book review by Catherina Strong: Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data and COVID-19. Edited by Guy Morrow, Daniel Nordgård and Peter Tschmuck, Springer Music Business Research book series, pp. 43-44

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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.

Introducing our guests: Hyojung Sun (University of York, UK)

Dr Hyojung Sun is our keynote speaker in the afternoon of October 20th. She will talk about “Parallel Worlds of Music Streaming” and is also a participant in the following panel discussion with Yasmo (musican, Vienna/Austria), Fabian Schütze (analogsoul, Leipzig/Germany) and David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds, UK) under the guidance of Hannes Tschürtz (ink, Vienna/Austria).

Hyojung Sun is a Lecturer in Business of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of York. With her academic background in Science and Technology Studies (STS, University of Edinburgh, PhD), she explores the contemporary issues impacting popular music such as Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era and Music 2025 – the Music Data Dilemma. These projects have made a significant contribution to the evidence base, gaining industry-wide support, and are acting as a catalyst in bringing industry, academia and Government together.

Prior to joining York, she worked as a research associate in the Creative Industries at Ulster University, working as part of NESTA’s Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) programme. Hyojung has a rich background crossing industry and academia. She worked in the IT industry where she observed the early Internet policy making process which prompted her to go back to education to further study IT policy for her MA at the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. She applied her knowledge in practice during her time at the National Assembly Research Services (NARS) in Korea, as a legislative researcher, helping policy makers and politicians make sound decisions in the field of media, culture and tele-communications.

Introducing our guests: David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds, UK)

Prof. David Hesmondhalgh is one of our keynote speakers on “Parallel Worlds of Music Streaming” from 14:00-14:45 on October 20 in Joseph Haydn Hall at the mdw – University of Music and Performings Arts Vienna. He also joins the following discussion panel with Hyojung Sun (University of York, UK), Yasmo (musician, Vienna, Austria) and Fabian Schütze (analogsoul, Leipzig, Germany).

David Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media, Music and Culture in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. He currently leads Music Culture in the Age of Streaming, a research project funded by an Advanced Research Grant from the European Research Council (2021-2026). He is the author of a book-length report Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Age (co-authored with Richard Osborne, Hyojung Sun and Kenny Barr, 2021) and numerous books, including The Cultural Industries (4^th edition, 2019) and Why Music Matters (2013). His talk draws on a literature review he conducted for the UK Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, co-authored with Raquel Campos, Bondy Kaye and Zhongwei Li.

Introducing our guests: Fabian Schütze (Analogsoul, Leipzig/Germany)

Fabian Schütze is our panelist in the discussion on “Parallel Worlds of Music Streaming” with Hyojung Sun (University of York, UK), Yasmo (musician, Vienna, Austria) and David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds, UK) from 15:00-16:00 on October 20 in Joseph Haydn Hall at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

He is the founder of the creative collective Analogsoul in 2008, toured as an artist himself for years, but has always been more interested in the business part of the venture. Today his boutique agency Golden Ticket takes care of Martin Kohlstedt, CATT, SALOMEA, Black Sea Dahu and Max Prosa in booking and management. Fab is part of the Regional Council East of the VUT – the german association of independent music companies and cooperates in a variety of projects with partners like Kick The Flame, recordJet, Believe, Broken Silence, listenrecords, Greenhouse Talent and many more. His music business newsletter and the corresponding magazine “Low Budget High Spirit” are among the most read in the german speaking part of the industry. He also consults high profile independent musicians and projects on brand building, strategy and digital marketing. Fab lives and works in Leipzig, Germany.

More via https://lowbudgethighspirit.com/

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

 

 

Music Business Research 2019 – in retrospective

Dear all,

Music streaming has been still on the rise in 2019 as an international market analysis highlights. However, a closer look unveils that in some markets – especially in Scandinavia (part 1, part 2, part 3) – the streaming markets have matured and will be soon saturated. Therefore we can expect a market consolidation in 2020 with some stand-alone music streaming services disappearing. Spotify seems to be “to big to fail”, however, it will rely on strong partners to back the Swedish company in rough sea.

The Universal Music Group (UMG) will have a strong partner in 2020. Today it was announced that a consortium led by Chinese Tencent Holdings will buy up a 10% stake of UMG from the French parent company Vivendi. Since the world`s largest recording company will be partly owned by a Chinese conglomerate this could be a game changer in the music industry and the Chinese recorded music market will become even more relevant for the international music business. This blog will be the place to analyse the new situation.

And Asia will be also in the focus of the 11^th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets”, which will be held from September 21-23, 2020 at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. We expect keynotes on the Chinese, Indian and South Korean music markets as well as short presentations and panel discussion on several Eastern European markets. The call-for-paper for the Young Scholars’ Workshop on Sep. 21 and the Conference Track Day on Sep. 22 are already open for submissions of abstracts.

The 10th Vienna Music Business Research Days 2019 in retrospective

At the 10^th anniversary Vienna Music Business Research Days music business researchers and music industry representatives from around the globe looked into the crystal ball to highlight and discuss the “Future of the Music Business”.

The Young Scholars Workshop traditionally opened the conference as a forum for master and PhD students to present and discuss their research results with renown international music business scientists. This year two papers were awarded by an international jury with the first prize: “THE NEW MAGIC PEOPLE: An Ethnographic Study of East London’s Cultural Workers at Shoreditch House” by Sam Edrisi of Westminster University and King’s College London and “Creativity, Constraints, and Copyright – Hired Music Guns and the Case of Soundalikes” by Konstantin Hondros of the University Duisburg-Essen. Both papers are considered tob e published in the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR).

On the following Conference Track Day, music business researchers from Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romenia, Spain, South Africa, UK and the US presented their research results on a broad range of music business topics, such as gender aspects in the classical music sphere, the live music business in the Netherlands, self-management and entrepreneurship of musicians, the demand for music in the music streaming age, music branding, music labour markets and music education issues (see program).

The final Invited Conference Day on September 13^th focused on the conference main topic the “Future of the Music Business”. The London-based entertainment lawyer Cliff Fluet held the introductory keynote “The Music Business & Technology – How Their Past and Present will Dictate Their Future” and joined the following panel discussion on “The Future of Music Copyright” with Ros Lynch (Intellectual Property Office, London) and the blockchain start-up founder Steve Stewart (vezt, Los Angeles), moderated by Sally Gross (University of Westminster, London). The panelists discussed the impact of new technologies such as the blockchain and artificial intellectual on copyright legislation.

Michael Smellie, the former COO of Sony/BMG and Australian start-up investor, closed the morning session by looking back into the music industry’s recent past with his keynote on the music industry’s “Seven Deadly Sins” to learn more about the industry’s future.

 

After the lunch break Paul O’Hagan of the University of Ulster had a conversation with music manager Peter Jenner on the concept of label service contracts, which Peter Jenner introduced by signing Billy Bragg to Cooking Vinyl. Label service contracts have become very popular among superstars such as Taylor Swift, since there is no need to contract away all rights to the labels. Peter Jenner was also a mastermind and initiator of the “Music 2025” project, which was introduced for the first to the public by him and Dennis Collopy (University of Hertfordshire, UK) in 2014 at the Vienna Music Business Research Days. This year Dennis Collopy presented the project’s results to an international audience.

In the following keynote “What Are the Key Drivers of Growth in Music Streaming?” music industry analyst Chris Carey outlined the past, present and future developments in the music streaming economy. This was a good starting point for the final panel discussion on “Future of the Music Business – What’s Next after Music Streaming?” with Rebecca Brook (music industry consultant, London), Chris Carey (Media Insight Consulting, London), Phil Graham (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia) and Michael Smellie (start-up investor, Australia), moderated by Dennis Collopy (University of Hertfordshire).

The 10^th Vienna Music Business Research Days were supplemented by a book presentation event in the evening of September 11^th. Daniel Nordgård of the University of Agder in Kristiansand/Norway presented the first volume of the Springer book series “Music Business Research” entitled “The Music Business and Digital Impacts. Innovations and Disruptions in the Music Industries“. Phil Graham of the University of the Sunshine Coast/Australia followed with the presentation of the book series’ second volume “Music, Management, Marketing, and Law. Interviews Across the Music Business Value Chain“. Subsequently both authors joined a panel discussion on “Big Data in the Music Business” with the Vienna-based start-up entrepreneur Nermina Mumic and music manager Peter Jenner.

10th Anniversary Music Business Research Days 2019 on “Future of the Music Business”

The Vienna Music Business Research Days conference celebrates its 10^th birthday this year by looking into the past to learn more about the future of the music business. In the past ten years the VMBR-Days were a platform for forward looking and controversial music industry topics. In 2011, Dagfinn Bach highlighted the high CO₂ emissions of music streaming compared to music downloads – a topic, which has become highly relevant in the times of climate change. In the same year the founder of the German music streaming service Simfy, Steffen Wicker, and then PRS for Music chief economist, Will Page, who later joined Spotify, discussed if music streaming would be the next big thing in the music industry. In 2013, Mike Michalke introduced the project of a creative commons collecting society, which was established a few years later as the Cultural Commons Collecting Society (C3S) in Germany. Also in 2013 international experts, among them the doyen of intellectual property rights research, Adolf Dietz, discussed how copyright legislation has to be adapted to new technological and social challenges. Some of the proposals, which were discussed in Vienna, later entered the recently enacted EU Copyright Directive. In 2015, alternative instruments to finance music projects such as crowdfunding, angel investment and start-up funding, which are common practice now, were highlighted by keynotes and panel discussions. In 2017, the blockchain technology and its impact on the music business was in the focus of the 8^th Vienna Music Business Research Days. And further topics such as the live music and concert business, self-management of artists, new music consumption behavior and music file sharing were discussed in the past years.

In 2019, some of the topics will be resumed in the 10^th anniversary conference. After a keynote by London-based copyright lawyer Cliff Fluet of Lewis Silkin LLP, he will discuss on “The Future of Music Copyright” with Karl Ryan (Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google UK), Ros Lynch (Intellectual Property Office, London, UK) and Steve Stewart (vezt, Los Angeles, USA).

The former COO of Sony/BMG and Australian start-up investor Michael Smellie will look back in the recent history of the music industry by highlighting the music industry’s “Seven Deadly Sins”. In the afternoon, Paul O’Hagan (Ulster University, UK) and music manager Peter Jenner (Pink Floyd, The Clash, Billy Bragg) will discuss the future of artist contracts in the recorded music business, before Peter will join Dennis Collopy (University of Hertfordshire, UK) to present the results of the “Music 2025” project, which was introduced by them to the public at the Vienna Music Business Research Days 2014. Then the founder of the British music streaming service 7digital, Pete Downton, will highlight the drivers of growth of music streaming. In the following panel discussion on the “Future of the Music Business – What’s Next after Music Streaming?”, Pete will exchange thoughts with music industry consultant Rebecca Brook (London, UK) communications researcher Phil Graham (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia) and start-up investor Michael Smellie (Brisbane, Australia).

The Vienna Music Business research Days will be opened on Sep. 11^th with the Young Scholars’ Workshop for master and PhD students to present their research to renown music business researchers in a closed workshop atmosphere. On Sep. 12^th scientists from all around the world will present their research finding on different music business/industry topics (see program).

 

Tickets for September 12-13, 2019: https://ntry.at/vmbrd2019

Promotion YouTube video: https://youtu.be/GkgAZX5uS_M

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViennaMusicBusinessResearchDays/

Live video-stream of the last conference day on Sep. 13^th, 9:00-17:30 CEST: https://live.mdw.ac.at/VMBRD_2019

Introducing our guests: Rebecca Brook (music industry consultant, London)

In the 10th anniversary Vienna Music Business Research Days on the “Future of the Music Business” at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Vienna/Austria) music business researchers and music business professionals look into the recent past of the music industry to learn more about its future. Find the program here.

Rebecca Brooks (music industry consultant, London) will discuss on the “Future of the Music Business – What’s Next after Music Streaming?”with Michael Smellie (former COO of Sony/BMG, Australia), Pete Downton (7digital, London, UK) and Phil Graham (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia).

Becky advises technology and music companies on music rights & licensing. Current and prior clients include 7digital, JAAK, Lirica, Lickd and TagMix.

Prior to becoming a consultant, she was Vice President of Commercial Development at digital music services firm Omnifone, where she headed up the Global Licensing team. Before that, she held a variety of strategy and business development roles at companies including EMI Music, SeeSaw, Sony Pictures and Warner Music Group.

She has extensive prior speaking experience including panels/presentations on music rights and licensing at various 4.5 Seminars, CISAC AGM, C/O Pop, MusicWeek Tech Summit, The Great Escape, Wide Days Edinburgh.”