In 2010, former hedge fund manager Josh Gruss founded the music publishing company Round Hill Music in New York City together with Neil Gillis and Richard Rowe with the aim of acquiring and commercially exploiting music copyrights. How Round Hill Music has become a major player in the music rights market that has raised hundreds…

Until a few years ago, music publishing was considered to be a rather boring business field in which music rights are acquired and licensed for various uses. This business model has not principally changed, but music rights have become a speculative investment in recent years, when new players such as Hipgnosis, Primary Wave and Round…

The COVID-19 pandemic hits the live music sector hardest since the end of World War II. The sector has been shut down since March 2020 in most of the countries. Concert and festivals were cancelled or postponed due to social distancing and lockdown measures. A report of Media Insight Consulting[1] estimates that 64 per cent…

The October issue 2020 of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR) is a special issue on the “Festivalisation of Live Music” edited by Erik Hitters and Carsten Winter. After a introductory editorial, the first article by Jeff Apruzzese presents a close-up look into the practices of the music festival industry in the USA,…

In times of the COVID-19 crisis it’s impossible to have an international conference with guests from all around the world in Vienna. Therefore, the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online conference only. Nevertheless we will have exciting conference guests from Asian as well as Eastern…

In times of the COVID-19 crisis it’s impossible to have an international conference with guests from all around the world in Vienna. Therefore, the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online conference only. Nevertheless we will have exciting conference guests from Asian as well as Eastern…

In times of the COVID-19 crisis it’s impossible to have an international conference with guests from all around the world in Vienna. Therefore, the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online conference only. Nevertheless we will have exciting conference guests from Asian as well as Eastern…

The 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online only conference in times of the global COVID-19 crisis. Nevertheless we will have guests from all over the world to talk and discuss on emerging music markets in Asia and Eastern Europe. Join the Zoom-conference here: ZOOM-LINK…

In times of the COVID-19 crisis it’s impossible to have an international conference with guests from all around the world in Vienna. Therefore, the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online conference only. Nevertheless we will have exciting conference guests from Asian as well as Eastern…

In times of the COVID-19 crisis it’s impossible to have an international conference with guests from all around the world in Vienna. Therefore, the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online conference only. Nevertheless we will have exciting conference guests from Asian as well as Eastern…

In times of the COVID-19 crisis it’s impossible to have an international conference with guests from all around the world in Vienna. Therefore, the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days on “Emerging Music Markets” will be held as an online conference only. Nevertheless we will have exciting conference guests from Asian as well as Eastern…

Part 1 of the blog series highlights that the Scandinavian countries are the world’s music streaming avant-garde due to a well-established broadband Internet infra-structure, a high smartphone penetration rate and domestic business innovations (see also part 2). The most influential Scandinavian business innovation was Sweden’s Spotify, which was launched in October 2008 at the culmination…

A series of blog entries tells the story of how the Scandinavian countries have become the forerunners of the music streaming economy and highlights the background of this development. In the second part of the series on Scandinavian’s way to a music streaming economy technological and business innovations that fostered music streaming are highlighted. The…

It’s no accident that Spotify was launched in Sweden during the culmination of the The Pirate Bay lawsuit in 2008. Spotify was promoted as the legal alternative to P2P files haring and the Swedish music consumers were the perfect test market for such a Freemium music service. Sweden’s neighbouring country Norway was in a similar…

The music business year 2018 was shaped by the ongoing streaming boom. In April, Spotify has been listed as a stock market company and shortly thereafter the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported a 41.1 percent increase of global music streaming revenue to US $6.6bn for 2017. Music streaming has become the most…

April 3rd 2018 is a historic moment in the digitized music industry, when the Swedish music streaming company Spotify is listed at the New York Stock Exchange. Spotify’s stock exchange listing is not just a touchstone for the music streaming service’s business model, but for the entire recorded music industry that is back on a…

In its last annual report Warner Music Group (WMG) exhibited a total revenue of US $3.58bn – the highest since the recorded music company was sold by Time-Warner to the Investor Group in 2003. Although overall costs also increased to US $3.15bn (WMG 2017: 38-39), the operating income is remarkably high with US $222m (WMG…

Dear readers of music business research blog, The music streaming boom dominated 2017. Market statistics highlight that music streaming revenue has become the most important income stream for the phonographic industry. The US figures for 2016 highlight a tremendous shift from selling music (CDs and downloads) to accessing music (by streaming services). In the US,…

The UK recorded music industry body BPI (British Phonographic Industry) reported a remarkable increase of recorded music sales from 2015 to 2016. According to BPI the growth was mainly driven by music streaming revenue, which increased by 61.0 per cent in a year-to-year comparison. Thus, as BPI (2017) points out, “(…) streaming accounted for 30…

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently published the shipment figures for recorded music in the US for 2016. The statistics highlight a tremendous shift from selling music (CDs and downloads) to accessing music (by streaming services). In the US, music consumers paid for the first time more for music access by ad-supported and…