Patrik Wikström and Robert DeFillippi bring together innovative, multidisclipinary perspectives on business innovation and disruption in the music industry. Authors from fields such as cultural studies, economics, management, media studies, musicology and human geography in North America, Europe and Asia focus on the “second wave” of digital disruption and the transformation of the music industry. The chapters are structured into three parts: the first part contextualizes changes in the music industry that have been driven by digital technologies since the end of the 1990s. The second part unpacks the impact of these disruptive technologies on business models in specific industry sectors and geographies, and the third and final part examines questions related to the emergence of subscription music services. Concluding chapters link back to the role of hackers as a subversive and innovative force in the music economy and examine how hacker creativity can be facilitated and encouraged to generate the next big music industry innovation. This multifaceted look at the music business will serve as a resource for both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as established scholars and industry professionals.

This research-based book outlines career models for artists, methods of creative engagement, artistic options including individuality and branding, production practices, the realities of being a musician in the new industries, and implications for popular music education. Due to the profound effects of the digitisation of music, the music industries have undergone rapid transformation. The former record label dominated industry has been supplanted by new industries, including digital aggregators, strategists and online platforms. These new music industries now facilitate ‘direct’ access to both artists and their music. While such accessibility and the potential for artist exposure have never been greater, the challenge to stand out or to even navigate a musical career pathway is formidable. A useful resource for musicians and educators, this text highlights the ways in which the new music industries facilitate increased opportunities for 21st Century popular musicians to collaborate, communicate and interact with others interested in their music.

Innovation in Music: Cultures and Contexts is a groundbreaking collection bringing together contributions from instructors, researchers, and professionals. Split into two sections, covering creative production practices and national/international perspectives, this volume offers truly global outlooks on ever-evolving practices. Including chapters on Dolby Atmos, the history of distortion, creativity in the pandemic, and remote music collaboration, this is recommended reading for professionals, students, and researchers looking for global insights into the fields of music production, music business, and music technology.

This book provides rare insights into the difficult and complex dialogues between stakeholders within and outside the music industries in a time of transition. It builds on a series of recorded meetings in which key stakeholders discuss and assess options and considerations for the music industries’ transition to a digital era. These talks were closed to the public and operated under the Chatham House Rule, which means that they involved a very different type of discussion from those held in public settings, panels or conferences. As such, the book offers a much more nuanced understanding of the industries’ difficulties in adjusting to changing conditions, demonstrating the internal power-struggles and differences that make digital change so difficult. After presenting a theoretical framework for assessing digital change in the music industries, the author then provides his research findings, including quotes from the Kristiansand Roundtable Conference. Following from these findings, he develops three critical concepts that explain the nature as well as the problems of the music industries’ adaptation process. In conclusion, he challenges the general definition of crisis in the music industries and contradicts the widely held view that digitalization is a case of vertical integration.

This volume examines how disruptive innovations are reshaping industry boundaries and challenging conventional business models and practices in the industries for film, video and photography.

Streaming Music examines how the Internet has become integrated in contemporary music use, by focusing on streaming as a practice and a technology for music consumption. The backdrop to this enquiry is the digitization of society and culture, where the music industry has undergone profound disruptions, and where music streaming has altered listening modes and meanings of music in everyday life. The objective of Streaming Music is to shed light on what these transformations mean for listeners, by looking at their adaptation in specific cultural contexts, but also by considering how online music platforms and streaming services guide music listeners in specific ways. Drawing on case studies from Moscow and Stockholm, and providing analysis of Spotify, VK and YouTube as popular but distinct sites for music, Streaming Music discusses, through a qualitative, cross-cultural, study, questions around music and value, music sharing, modes of engaging with music, and the way that contemporary music listening is increasingly part of mobile, automated and computational processes. Offering a nuanced perspective on these issues, it adds to research about music and digital media, shedding new light on music cultures as they appear today. As such, this volume will appeal to scholars of media, sociology and music with interests in digital technologies.