Music & the Entertainment Economy

Once again the Economist has a thoughtful perspective on the challenges facing the music business. This piece points to the rise of distributors who provide music for free (but legally) by monetizing the audio streams in a variety of creative ways: The past year has seen rapid growth of digital music services that accept the [...]

Mariah Carey a genius of the new music economy? That is the impression one gets from an article in the Times of London.  The article describes how Carey’s new album is more or less being sponsored by Elle Magazine, outside the record company system.  Buyers of Mariah’s new album will receive a special edition of [...]

Brian Eno curated this year’s Vivid Sydney Music Fest in Sydney, Australia.  During a press conference, he discussed his idea of the “scenius” in contrast to the “genius.” So, as I told you, I was an art student and, like all art students, I was encouraged to believe that there were a few great figures [...]

The music business is a fascinating example of a creativity-driven industry. Advances in manufacturing and sound recording technology mean that only a small part of the value of the final product – a compact disc or digital download – is generated by manufacturing and distribution. Instead, most of the costs of the music business today [...]

New research from our Insights series out today: The Great Musical North. An excerpt: While the public perception exists that Canada is a hot spot for music and musicians, a comparison with the global leader in music production – the United States – helps us to separate perception from reality. We find that Canada has [...]