Global music city: knowledge and geographical proximity in London's recorded music industry

Watson, Allan

doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2008.00793.x

Cited by 81 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…However, since the 1970s, new sound recording technologies have broken monopolies (Jones 2002), brought about democratization of the recording process, and undermined the position of many recording studios (see Leyshon 2009). Studios now largely act as an independent service within the contemporary recorded music industry, with many owned and operated by entrepreneurial producers and engineers (Watson et al 2008). This has had important repercussions for project work in the music industry by increasing the number of studios and level of skilled studio creatives available to firms and musicians.…”

Section: Project Ecologies In the Recorded Music Industry (B)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The world according to iTunes: mapping urban networks of music production

Watson

2012

Global Networks

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In this article, I present a social network analysis that explores and maps relational urban networks of production within the global recorded music industry. Within the analysis, recorded music albums are viewed as temporary market‐based projects that bring together teams of skilled creative workers in recording studios across the globe. New tools and techniques for networking studios in geographically distant locations give mobile musically creative workers the ability to coordinate musical recordings on a global scale, resulting in new relational geographies of music production. An innovative approach is taken to the social network analysis to assess the connectedness of cities and determine the centrality and power of cities within networks of production for three major Anglophone digital music markets. The result is a mapping of the relational urban networks of music production as indicated through the interdependencies between projects, studios and local urban agglomerations.

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Section: Project Ecologies In the Recorded Music Industry (B)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The world according to iTunes: mapping urban networks of music production

Watson

2012

Global Networks

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“…The significance of geography for music production is also captured by two routinely used ways to refer to music production: "scenes" when music is created in relatively small contexts where performers, support facilities, and fans loosely interact versus "music industry" when music is produced as a commodity for large audiences using highly formalized conventions with the aim to produce revenue (see Bennett & Peterson, 2004, pp. 3-6;Connell & Gibson, 2003;Watson, 2008). These concepts are not absolute opposites.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The online place of popular music: Exploring the impact of geography and social media on pop artists’ mainstream media attention

Verboord

Noord

2016

Popular Communication

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Many authors have pointed to the internet's potential to increase connectivity across the world, which would imply an equalizing effect, yet few researchers have examined this. At the same time, the increasing usage of social media by popular culture celebrities for self-promotion has been signaled. We study the extent to which social media can reduce inequalities in mainstream media attention between artists from central cities in popular music production (e.g., New York, London) versus more peripheral cities. We distinguish between media attention by institutionally embedded music critics and lay users on the internet. The results show that artists coming from more central cities have higher chances to get attention in mainstream media-both by institutional critics and lay users-than artists from peripheral cities. Building a fan base on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace can compensate for some of this inequality, but not for all of it. IntroductionRock 'n roll, and popular music in general, have traditionally been associated strongly with cities as loci of where new music is conceived, as is exemplified by the title of one of the earliest-and now classichistories of rock music: "The Sound of the City" (Gillett, 1970). Since then, scholars have shown how places matter in bringing together people (e.g., Connell & Gibson, 2003, 90ff;Lena, 2012), sounds and styles (Phillips, 2011), and businesses (Negus, 1992;Scott, 2000) to produce both artistically innovative and commercially viable music. However, the increasing popularity of the internet in the past decades has diminished the importance of geographical positioning. Or has it? A large body of authors has pointed to the internet's potential to increase connectivity across the world which would imply an equalizing effect (e.g., Anderson, 2006;Connell & Gibson, 2003), yet few authors have examined this. This article aims to study the extent to which various, different internet-based media 1 help reducing inequality between artists from central locations in popular music production versus more peripheral locations. More concretely, we examine how differences in mainstream media attention (both by institutional music critics and lay users) compare to pop artists' usage of social media (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter), and how this differs for artists of different geographical origin.It is evident that digitalization processes changed the structure and organization of the field of popular music significantly (e.g., Hesmondhalgh, 2012;Leyshon, 2009). The internet and especially social media platforms have made it easier to produce, disseminate, and consume popular music from all over the world (Baym & Ledbetter, 2009). This has led Wikström (2009, p. 10) to conclude that the current music industry is "characterized by high connectivity and little control; music is provided as a For the sake of readability we will also use the term "the internet" when we refer to internet-based media. However, we are aware that it is debatable whether the internet can b...

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“…19 Watson (2008). In music, then, agglomeration benefits have always been substantial, but not absolute.…”

Section: Diagram 3 Stylised Representation Of the Interlinked Intra-mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adopting the rights-based model

Bakker¹

2012

POMH

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This paper identifies four economic tendencies that shaped the development of the international recorded music industry since 1945: the importance of endogenous sunk costs led to a quality race; the fact that marginal revenue equalled marginal profit led to extreme vertical integration; the quasi-public good character of musicits non-diminishability but partial excludabilityled to a sharply unequal income distribution among stars and the pioneering of new business models to transform consumer into producer surplus; and finally, the projectbased character of music production led to decentralised agglomeration. What can be characterised as rights-based multinationals emerged as a response to these forces. They married extreme vertical integration and a portfolio of A&R labels having limited economies of scale and scope, with a global distribution and marketing machine. This paper tries to explain how they emerged and how they can explain increasing industrial concentration in the face of sharp growth of the market and of musical diversity.A revised version of this paper will be forthcoming in Popular Music History

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Global music city: knowledge and geographical proximity in London's recorded music industry

Cited by 81 publications

References 66 publications

The world according to iTunes: mapping urban networks of music production

The world according to iTunes: mapping urban networks of music production

The online place of popular music: Exploring the impact of geography and social media on pop artists’ mainstream media attention

Adopting the rights-based model

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