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.

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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: Ros Lynch (Intellectual Property Office, 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.

Ros Lynch of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO, London) is one of our panelist in the discussion on “The Future of Music Copyright” at mdw’s Joseph Haydn-Hall on Sep. 13th from 10:00-11:00 with Karl Ryan (Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google UK), Cliff Fluet (Lewis Silkin LLP, London, UK) and Steve Stewart (vezt, Los Angeles, USA) moderated by Sally Gross (University of Westminster, London, UK).

Ros joined the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in February 2014 as Director of Copyright and IP Enforcement. As Director, Ros leads the work to shape the direction of policy and operational work in copyright and enforcement, ensuring that the UK legal framework is up-to-date and fit for purpose. The role also involves extensive international engagement both within and outside Europe. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Hull and is the co-author of the report ‘Copyright Works’ with Richard Hooper CBE which recommended measures aimed at streamlining copyright licensing in the digital age.