The enemy of music : modeling the behavior of a cultural industry in crisis

The purpose of this explorative study is to contribute to the understanding of current music industry dynamics. The situation is undeniably quite dramatic: Since the turn of the millennium, the global music industry has declined by $ US 6.2 billion in value—a fall of 16.3% in constant dollar terms. IFPI, the trade organization representing the international recording industry, identifies a number of exogenous factors as the main drivers of the downturn. This article suggests that other factors, in addition to those identified by IFPI, may have contributed to the current difficulties. A model is presented which indicates that business strategies which were designed to cope with the challenging business environment have reduced product diversity, damaged profitability, and contributed to the problem they were intended to solve.

The transformation of Sweden from a haven for online pirates to the hope of the digital music industry [Musikbranschens föregångsland]

1974 was the year when the Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton and when Blue Swede reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Although Swedish pop music gained some international success even prior to 1974, this year is often considered as the beginning of an era in which Swedish pop music had great success around the world. With brands such as ABBA, Europe, Roxette, The Cardigans, Ace of Base, In Flames, Robyn, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia and music producers Stig Andersson, Ola Håkansson, Dag Volle, Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, Jorgen Elofsson and several others have the myth of the Swedish music miracle kept alive for nearly more than four decades. Swedish music looks to continue reap success around the world, but since the millennium, Sweden's relationship with music has been more focused on relatively controversial Internet-based services for music distribution developed by Swedish entrepreneurs and engineers rather than on successful musicians and composers. This chapter focusses on the music industry in Sweden. The chapter will discuss the development of the Internet services mentioned above and their impact on the production, distribution and consumption of recorded music. Ample space will be given in particular to Spotify, the music service that quickly has fundamentally changed the music industry in Sweden. The chapter will also present how the music industry's three sectors - recorded music, music licensing and live music - interact and evolve in Sweden.

Designing Web 2.0 ePortfolios for music postgraduate study : A practice-led enquiry

This article examines the design of ePortfolios for music postgraduate students utilizing a practice-led design iterative research process. It is suggested that the availability of Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and social network software potentially provide creative artist with an opportunity to engage in a dialogue about art with artefacts of the artist products and processes present in that discussion. The design process applied Software Development as Research (SoDaR) methodology to simultaneously develop design and pedagogy. The approach to designing ePortfolio systems applied four theoretical protocols to examine the use of digitized artefacts to enable a dynamic and inclusive dialogue around representations of the students work. A negative case analysis identified a disjuncture between university access and control policy, and the relative openness of Web2.0 systems outside the institution that led to the design of an integrated model of ePortfolio.

"Who Are You" by DeepBlue Orchestra - Artistic Producer of Show

The production of a two hour show "Who Are You" which which began touring Australia and Asia in 2012.

A qualitative study of small-scale artist run 'Indie' music business in Brisbane

This study is an examination of three small-scale artist run music businesses based in Brisbane. The researcher embedded himself within these three environments over the space of three years, using participant observation and content analysis to establish the key motivations, theories, and ideas which drove these businesses. As a researcher participant the author also drew on his own experiences to interrogate those investigated by other researchers in the field, with the underlying key theories influenced by Pierre Bourdieu's writings on Small-Scale production. This study provides a fascinating insight into Brisbane music culture, in particular the independent music scenes.

Accused cleric link to top music school probe

THE senior Anglican clergyman at the centre of an international child sex scandal was also a governor of a prestigious English music college that is under investigation for the alleged abuse of scores of its students across decades. Robert Waddington, who is alleged to have sexually assaulted students and choirboys in Britain and Australia, was a governor of the scandal-hit Chetham's School of Music for nine years. Waddington recruited students from the school for his choir at Manchester Cathedral, and allegedly abused at least three of the boys until he retired in 1993. The police investigation into the school, which began after the conviction in February of Michael Brewer, a former Chetham's music director, for the sexual abuse of female students, has not previously looked at Waddington. A victim has told The Weekend Australian that he was aware Waddington abused several boys from Chetham's who, like him, had been in the choir. The Cambridge University-educated business analyst, who has offered to give evidence under oath to police and the Church of England's inquiry into Waddington, said the clergyman had kept a collection of pictures in his house of boys he had abused.

Deleuze and music : a creative approach to the study of music

The work of Gilles Deleuze has influenced an increasing number of music scholars and practicing musicians, particularly those interested in experimental, electronic and popular music. This is despite the notoriously complex nature of his writings, and the specialised theoretical vocabulary that he employs. This thesis both demystifies some of the key terms and concepts of this vocabulary, before demonstrating how Deleuze’s ideas may be put to work in new and fruitful ways; this is achieved with specific reference to the relationships that music has with thought, time and machines. In Chapter 1, Deleuze’s understanding of the power of thought is examined, in particular his approach to communication, transcendence and immanence, and the “powers of thought.” Each of these concepts helps us to understand Deleuze’s work within broad problem of how to think about music immanently: that is, how to maintain that thought and music are both immanent aspects of life and experience. Chapter 2 examines time within a Deleuzian framework, linking his work on cinema with the concept of the “refrain”; both of these areas prove crucial to his understanding of music, as seen in Deleuze’s approach to the work of Varese, Messiaen, and Boulez. In addition, Deleuze’s understanding of time proves fruitful in examining various aspects of music production, as seen in contemporary electronic dance music. Finally, Chapter 3 looks at the concept of the machine, as developed by Deleuze and Guattari, with reference to the sorts of “machinic” connections that a Deleuzian approach encourages us to seek out in music. Once again, examples from contemporary electronic music are presented, in relation to the notions of becoming and subjectivity. Throughout these chapters, Deleuze’s broad understanding of philosophy as the “creation of concepts” is deployed. This means introducing new ideas and specific types of music that encourage creative and novel engagements with the study of music.

Beat-mixing rock music

Electronic dance music (EDM) has the capacity of producing not simply individual recordings but also a medium to create new soundtracks through live manipulation of these recordings by disc jockeys (DJs). This immediacy in dance music is in contrast with recorded rock music continuing to be presented in a static form. Research was undertaken to explore the proposition that EDM’s beat-mixing function can be implemented to create immediacy in rock music. The term used in this thesis to refer to the application of beat-mixing in rock music is ‘ClubRock’. Through collaboration between a number of disk jockeys and rock music professionals the research applied the process of beat-mixing standard rock compositions to produce a continuous rock set. DJ techniques created immediacy in the recordings and transformed static renditions into a fluid creative work.

The music industry in an age of digital distribution

In 1999 the global recorded music industry had experienced a period of growth that had lasted for almost a quarter of a century. Approximately one billion records were sold worldwide in 1974, and by the end of the century, the number of records sold was more than three times as high. At the end of the nineties, spirits among record label executives were high and few music industry executives at this time expected that a team of teenage Internet hackers, led by Shawn Fanning (at the time a student at Northeastern University in Boston) would ignite the turbulent process that eventually would undermine the foundations of the industry.

Music streaming revenue structures stacked against artists

Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora pay many millions of dollars each year for the rights to the music they play. But how much of this ends up back with artists and songwriters? The answer: not an awful lot.

DeepBlue India Stories

Original Staged Music Performance incorporating Projected Sand Art and Narrator at Woodford Festival 2013

Development of Mobile Web App "ESP" for DeepBlue to interrogate how an audience is thinking

DeepBlue is much more than just an orchestra. Their innovative approach to audience engagement led it to develop ESP, their Electronic Show Programme web app which allows for real-time (synchronous) and delayed (asynchronous) audience interaction, customer feedback and research. The show itself is driven invisibly by a music technology operating system (currently QUT's Yodel) that allows them to adapt to a wide range of performance venues and varied types of presentation. DeepBlue's community engagement program has enabled over 5,500 young musicians and community choristers to participate in professional productions, it is also a cornerstone of DeepBlue's successful business model. You can view the ESP mobile web app at m.deepblue.net.au if you view this and only the landing page is active, there is not a show taking place or imminent. ESP prototype has already been used for 18 months. Imagine knowing what your audience really thinks – in real time so you can track their feelings and thoughts through the show. This tool has been developed and used by the performing group DeepBlue since late 2012 in Australia and Asia (even translated into Vietnamese). It has mostly superseded DeepBlue's SMS realtime communication during a show. It enables an event presenter or performance group to take the pulse of an audience through a series of targeted questions that can be anonymous or attributed. This will help build better, long-lasting, and more meaningful relationships with groups and individuals in the community. This can take place on a tablet, mobile phone or future platforms. There are three organisations trialling it so far.

Music festivals are in trouble but the shows must go on

It’s no secret that the music festival scene in Australia has recently hit some troubled waters. Harvest festival has been cancelled this year, unpaid performers are still chasing the organisers of the failed Peats Ridge festival and Britpop superstars Blur recently pulled out of the Big Day Out, saying festival organisers “have let us down”. What factors are driving this upheaval, and why do some festivals survive where others fail?

A History of Popular Indigenous Music

SINCE THE INVENTION OF recording technologies like the phonograph in the late 1800s, Indigenous music has been performed and recorded across Australia for a wide range of audiences. In the early twentieth century, for instance, music was recorded by anthropologists keen to capture the sounds of a culture that was believed to be in rapid decline (Thomas). Individual performers were not considered important in these recordings; their music was produced for scientific posterity rather than popular pleasure. And even though Aboriginal participation in local music festivals, touring vaudeville shows, and community gatherings was well documented throughout the twentieth century, it was not until the 1950s that Indigenous “pop stars” began to sell records for mass consumption(Dunbar-Hall and Gibson). Yet, with the persistence of recording artists like Jimmy Little over the past sixty years, Indigenous musicians have steadily gained prominence in Australia’s mainstream. This has been particularly true of the past twenty years, especially since the Sydney Olympics, where promotional strategies have brought about a new popular pride in musical achievements, based upon a celebrated history of diverse sounds and voices.

Studio-quality digital music? It’s only as good as your set-up

There’s a diagram that does the rounds online that neatly sums up the difference between the quality of equipment used in the studio to produce music, and the quality of the listening equipment used by the consumer...