Les stars ont envahi tous les domaines de la culture, du cinéma à la peinture, de la musique au livre et au spectacle vivant. Pourquoi le succès semble-t-il de moins en moins s'expliquer par le talent ? Sur les marchés culturels de plus en plus mondialisés, où les " produits " déclinent de plus en plus des réussites récentes, où les structures de production se concentrent pour amortir les coûts de la " fabrication " des stars, quel espace reste-t-il pour la création véritable et l'innovation ? Nos engouements sont-ils condamnés à se tourner fatalement vers des « succès annoncés » à grands coups de campagnes promotionnelles ? En matière de politique culturelle, la défense de « l’exception française » suffit-elle pour pallier un phénomène devenu à ce point familier qu'on le pense inévitable : la généralisation tous azimuts du star-system ? Économiste, Françoise Benhamou est professeur à l'université de Rouen et chercheur au MATISSE, à l'université Paris-I. Elle a notamment publié Économie de la culture.

The term 'Popular Music' has traditionally denoted different things in France and Britain. In France, the very concept of 'popular' music has been fiercely debated and contested, whereas in Britain and more largely throughout what the French describe as the 'Anglo-saxon' world 'popular music' has been more readily accepted as a description of what people do as leisure or consume as part of the music industry, and as something that academics are legitimately entitled to study. French researchers have for some decades been keenly interested in reading British and American studies of popular culture and popular music and have often imported key concepts and methodologies into their own work on French music, but apart from the widespread use of elements of 'French theory' in British and American research, the 'Anglo-saxon' world has remained largely ignorant of particular traditions of the study of popular music in France and specific theoretical debates or organizational principles of the making and consuming of French musics. French, British and American research into popular music has thus coexisted - with considerable cross-fertilization - for many years, but the barriers of language and different academic traditions have made it hard for French and anglophone researchers to fully appreciate the ways in which popular music has developed in their respective countries and the perspectives on its study adopted by their colleagues. This volume provides a comparative and contrastive perspective on popular music and its study in France and the UK.

Cultural economics has become well established as a subject of interest for students and teachers of courses ranging from economics to arts administration as well as for policy-makers and practitioners in the creative industries. Digitisation has had a tremendous impact on many areas of the creative economy and the third edition of this popular book fully reflects it.

Creative work is governed by uncertainty. So how can customers and critics judge merit, when the disparity between superstardom and obscurity hinges on minor gaps in ability? The Economics of Creativity brings clarity to a market widely seen as either irrational or so free of standards that only power and manipulation count.

The book examines the contemporary art system with a broad and systematic approach, through the application of models of microeconomics and industrial organizations. By breaking down the traditional barriers between different academic disciplines such as art and economics, this book offers a unique opportunity to grasp the complexities of the contemporary art world and provides the tools to conduct a structural analysis of that market. The result is an in-depth analysis of the contemporary art market from an interdisciplinary perspective. While it is not a textbook in the strictest sense, the book offers a concise and effective overview of all actors in the art system, and provides supporting data and valuable information, both conceptual and practical. It is therefore a text that can be used by students wishing to better understand the complex dynamics that govern the contemporary art market, but also by cultural managers, collectors, potential art investors or simply art lovers who need a quick reference.​

The second edition of this widely acclaimed and extensively cited collection of original contributions by specialist authors reflects changes in the field of cultural economics over the last eight years. Thoroughly revised chapters alongside new topics and contributors bring the Handbook up-to-date, taking into account new research, literature and the impact of new technologies in the creative industries. The book covers a range of topics encompassing the creative industries as well as the economics of the arts and culture, and includes chapters on: economics of art (including auctions, markets, prices, anthropology), artists' labour markets, creativity and the creative economy, cultural districts, cultural value, globalization and international trade, the internet, media economics, museums, non-profit organisations, opera, performance indicators, performing arts, publishing, regulation, tax expenditures, and welfare economics.