Rachel McLean Principal Lecturer in Creative Technologies at the University of Bolton. Her research interests lie in the area of sociology of technology and draw upon critical social theory exploring issues of power and control, adoption and implementation of technologies and more recently use of social media technologies. She has presented at national and international conferences and has published in both academic and practitioner journals. Rachel McLean is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: r.mclean@bolton.ac.uk

Gill Green Reader in Business Technologies in the School of Business and Creative Technologies at the University of Bolton. She has worked previously for the University of Durham, University of Sunderland and Northumbria University with a domain focus on information systems and research methods. Her current research interests are in the area of open source software initiatives, SMEs, organisational learning and music and creative industries. She is treasurer of UKAIS and alongside Rachel McLean has co-organised the doctoral consortium for the past two years.

Jo Hilditch Course Leader on the BSc in Music and Creative Business at the University of Bolton, runs a successful PR company, Yeeha PR, and is a recording artist. She has worked in the music and creative industries for over 15 years and has worked in many areas of marketing, both traditional and experiential, events, PR and communications on many campaigns. She was also Manchester Woman of the Year 2006 for her contribution to women and culture where she provided a network for women in the music industry.

Kate Holmes Doctoral Researcher at the University of Bolton in the School of Business and Creative Technologies. She is currently writing her PhD thesis on Live Music and Creative Communities. Kate Holmes has worked within the music industry for five years and she is currently an event manager and promoter in Manchester.

Over the past ten years there has been a progression of new business models within the record and publishing industries as they adapt to the new ways in which fans now consume music. It is widely acknowledged that the music industries are facing interesting times and that the challenges posed by the rise of new technologies is forcing upheaval and restructuring to the status quo. The major labels were confronted with an illegal pirating industry estimated in 2006 to be £1.3 billion which now outstrips in value both live and recorded sales of music, whilst their ability to control and police this situation is limited. The history of the music industries has been a trajectory of technological change, each change requiring a restructuring of the way which we as individuals engage with the creativity that embraces our everyday individual actions, and the subsequent need for discreet industrial revolutions, from vinyl to audio cassette, from CD to mp3, new formats have offered new opportunities for profit making activity.

In a recent research poll by Music Ally which looked at fans from the UK, Europe and the US, music fans overwhelmingly backed ISPs as their favoured music supplier when asked to choose amongst a variety of providers. The labels are losing music buying fans to internet service provider based music suppliers. This raises a number of questions; does the industry need to connect more with the ISPs to regain the relationship with the fans? In turn can the ISPs play a crucial role in helping to control unlicensed file sharing? People want music more than ever so there seems to be a disconnection between how fans want to experience, consume and share music and the traditional record label business model. Are consumers willing to pay for digital music? What impact will new models have on existing business? Where are the new opportunities and how can they be exploited? Will the new models reward the creator? Will technologies put artist and fans in touch and what are the benefits of this?

The music business is an industry where we can have complete confidence in the two ends of the supply chain but the bit in the middle we call the “industry” seems unable to connect with both (Fergal Sharkey, UK Music 2009).

In September 2009 an academic and practitioner conference “Music Business and Technology” was held to coincide with the annual “In the City” Music Industry Conference in Manchester founded by the late entrepreneur and music impresario Tony Wilson and his Partner Yvette Livesey. The conference included a keynote speech from Jon “Webbo” Webster CEO of the Music Managers’ Forum who addressed the issues industry now faces and contributions from Ron Atkinson (manager 808 state, Shades of Rhythm and ex head of A&R ZTT Records).

In his keynote session Jon Webster discussed the story of a DIY star where her very success is epitomised through her direct digital engagement with her fan base in the following quote:

But the most fascinating story about her is she does her big blog, I don’t quite understand this kind of stuff, twitter things, anyway she’s sitting at home on a Friday night I think she does it with a camera, she’s chatting to all her fans online and then she says “Aren’t we sad, we’re all at home on a Friday night”. Her graphic designer was online, he designed a T-shirt to her in 20 minutes, he e-mailed it to her and she held it up on screen and she sold 4,000 dollars worth over night, she had a party the next night and sold the empty bottles from her flat to her fans – This is the way forward, it’s not the only way we’re not going to be selling recorded music forever but we are going to be monetising in some way the artist fan relationship.

This special issue of Management Decision aims to look at how the industry can evolve as a business and how it can respond to opportunities created by new technologies and adapt business models and services. Four papers were selected from those submitted to the conference for publication in this special issue. These papers consider a range of issues of current relevance to the music industry globally. The first paper “Music piracy: ethical perspectives” by Bonner (University College Dublin) and O’Higgins (University College Dublin and London School of Economics) explores the issue of illegal downloading of music through an ethical lens. This paper sets the scene; the landscape of a generation who are accustomed to “free” downloads. Music piracy is explored through ethical and psychological theory considering consumer behaviour and strategies for “disengaging” from the ethical ambiguity of illegally downloading music. Capturing the essence of the conference (theory into practice) the paper offers advice to managers in the music business who face the real threat of music piracy.

The second paper “Genre-deviating artist entry: the role of authenticity and fuzziness” by Mattsson (Stanford Graduate School of Business), Peltoniemi (Helsinki University of Technology) and Parvinen (Helsinki School of Economics) discusses how audiences react to deviations from existing genres by new artists. This paper outlines the social construction of genre and categorisation of music, and explores the penalties faced by new entry artists who do not fit easily into an established category. This paper informs music marketers and those constructing artist identities of the perils of non-conformist, or independent, artists in the commercial environment of the music industry. The concept of authenticity (both type authenticity and moral authenticity) is explored in relation to new artist conformity to an existing music genre. This leads into the third paper, “The myths of empowerment through information communication technologies: an exploration of the music industries and fan bases” by McLean, Oliver (University of Bolton) and Wainwright (Northumbria University), in which authenticity is a concept explored through the lens of Haberbasian theory. This paper explores the effect technology has had on the DIY artist, the music industries, and fans. Drawing upon critical social theory and Habermas’ theory of communicative action it argues that the status quo remains and little has changed in the power relations that exist in the industry.

In the fourth paper Wang (National Chung Cheng University) and Doong (National Chiayi University) investigate the use of mobile technologies in Taiwan in “Diffusion of mobile music service in Taiwan: an empirical investigation of influence sources”, by applying Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory to see whether the diffusion of mobile music service adoption is affected by external influences, internal influences or a combination of such influences. In the fifth paper, “The impacts of differences between UK and US copyright laws for sound recordings on musicians”, Mulhaney-Clements (University of Bolton) investigates the potential impacts that such differences may have on creators and their careers, and the challenges they present. Specifically, the paper considers the impacts of differences between UK and US copyright laws for sound recordings on musicians from both countries. Although a complex subject, through a critical analysis of current UK and US copyright legislation and literature, this paper seeks to incite further debate on the need for continued standardisation of international IP and copyright laws (particularly those related to sound recordings) and the need for copyright law education for creators. The sixth paper, “Discovering the facets of copyright licensing for commercial composers” by Roberts (University of Bolton) examines the facets of copyright licensing for commercial composers. As traditional business models within the music industry wane, there emerges a tacit opportunity for composers to exploit copyright through partnerships with third party entrepreneurs, across sectors such as television, video games and film. A case study is utilised to identify opportunities within the television sector for commercial composers who own both publishing and mechanical copyright. In the seventh paper, “Customers’ perceptions about concerts and CDs” Rondán-Cataluña and Martín-Ruiz (University of Seville) ask whether the improved quality, yet lower cost, of recorded music threatens the future of live music events. They explore this question through an empirical study of music fans in Spain. The paper concludes that the future of live events is not under threat, but that music managers need to gain a greater understanding of the motives and expectations of fans in relation to purchasing CDs and other formats of recorded music and in experiencing live performances.

In the final paper, “The DIY artist: issues of sustainability within local music scenes” Oliver (University of Bolton) identifies a need for the DIY artist to move towards sustainability through the use of new technologies, This is achieved by defining DIY music culture, identifying the creative and business needs of an artist as well as establishing a model for artists to be self-sufficient.

The papers all illustrate the increased complexity of the music industries exploring key issues of relevance to managers, labels, artists and fans. Each of these papers has identified areas for further research and we look forward to hearing about this at the “Music Business and Technology” conference 2010.

Acknowledgements

The guest editors would like to thank the conference team for all of their hard work and effort.

Rachel McLean, Gill Green, Jo Hilditch, Kate HolmesGuest Editors

The music industry in the twenty-first century: challenges and innovation

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