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

 

 

Advertisement

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”).

The Early Recording Industry in the Czech Lands – Part 2

Guest post by Daniel Matoušek

Until now, there has not been much literature on the recording industry in the former Czechoslovakia.  Particularly the history after the 1950s is not mapped at all yet. However, there are two books about the early music industry in the Czech lands that stand out in scope and in depth of detail: “Fonogram I” and “Fonogram II” by Czech record collector and sound industry historian Gabriel Gössel. The following short series of four articles is thus a look into the history of early gramophone industry in the Czech lands as described in these two volumes.

This second part looks at the period of 1920s, when Czechoslovakia emerged as  an independent state with a flourishing market economy, but became also a victim of the Great Depression at the end of the decade.

The Early Recording Industry in the Czech Lands – Part 1

Guest post by Daniel Matoušek

Until now, there has not been much literature on the recording industry in the former Czechoslovakia.  Particularly the history after the 1950s is not mapped at all yet. However, there are two books about the early music industry in the Czech lands that stand out in scope and in depth of detail: “Fonogram I” and “Fonogram II” by Czech record collector and sound industry historian Gabriel Gössel. The following short series of four articles is thus a look into the history of early gramophone industry in the Czech lands as described in these two volumes.

The first part deals with the very beginnings of a Czech recording industry before World War I, a time span when the Czech lands – Bohemia and Moravia – still belonged to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

The recession in the music industry – a cause analysis

Filesharing is made primarily responsible for the decline in sales in the phonographic industry, especially in the CD segment (see the current IFPI Digital Music Report). However, serious research on filesharing behavior (see Huygen et al 2009, Andersen/Frenz 2007, Oberholzer-Gee/Strumpf 2007 (working-paper March 2004), Blackburn 2004) shows that filesharing use does not necessarily have a negative impact on physical and digital sales. But if this is not the case, then there must be other causes for the now decade-long recession. In the following I would like to discuss alternative explanations for the recession in the music industry and try to substantiate them empirically.