Corporate Life in the Digital Music Industry

In the post-Napster era, Big Music fragmented and recombined in infrastructures of digital catalogues, streaming platforms, and a new universe for licensing. Within them, Bennett opens our eyes to the thousands of workers who do the humdrum tasks of asset management while they cling to their roles sustaining the cultural power of a global creative industry. In the margins, Bennett points to the porous membrane between an academic critique of corporate popular music and the critical reflexivity within the industry’s corporate cultures. * Vicki Mayer, Professor of Communication, Tulane University, USA, and author of Below the Line: Producers and Production Studies in the New Television Economy * Toby Bennett has written a wonderful book that revives and refreshes one of the key strands of research in the creative economy tradition, what we might call the sociology of cultural production. With access to company insiders and a fine-tuned knowledge of the popular music industry Bennett charts the impact of the changes from digital technology on the working lives within the sector. This book will prompt lively debate and deserves to go on all reading lists across media and cultural studies as well as related subject areas. * Angela McRobbie, Emeritus Professor, Goldsmiths University of London, UK * With a fine blend of insider insights and academic theory, Toby Bennett charts the transitions and transformations as the UK music industry comes to terms with the digital revolution. An indispensable guide to an important period in the history of the creative industries, and a major contribution to studies of cultural production. * Keith Negus, Professor of Musicology, Goldsmiths University of London, UK * The music industry is often characterized as a fast-moving environment driven by youthfulness, excitement, and technological innovation. However, as Bennett makes clear in this excoriating analysis the real pace of change in the music industry is very different. Bringing to the foreground the experiences of those back-office workers whose job it is to keep the wheels of the music industry turning in moments of upheaval reveals a very different set of tensions that expose the reality of what corporate music life is like. In this eye-opening book Bennett provides a much-needed overview of the infrastructures of the digital music industry. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of music! * Sally Anne Gross, Reader in Music Business, University of Westminster, UK * Toby Bennett's Corporate Life in the Digital Music Industry provides a new, people-centered view on the transformations that re-shaped the music industry in the early aughts. Delving into the minutiae of daily work at major record labels in the UK, Bennett critically examines the organizational dynamics and logics guiding industry professionals, and how they, in turn, impact the organizations they work for and the broader industry. Offering insights into both the internal workings of the industry and its overall evolution, this book is indispensable for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of the forces driving macro-level change in music. * Brodie Conley, Researcher, Center for Music Ecosystems, Canada * This is the sister story we all needed after How Music Got Free. These are the people behind the scenes affecting change. We now know how we got here, to this moment, leaving us ready to decide our future. * Maarten Walraven, co-CEO, Symphony Media *