Patrik Wikstrom - The Music Industry. Music in the Cloud [2010][A]

Book Description
The music industry is going through a period of immense change brought about in part by the digital revolution. What is the role of music in the age of computers and the internet? How has the music industry been transformed by the economic and technological upheavals of recent years, and how is it likely to change in the future?

This is the first major study of the music industry in the new millennium. Wikström provides an international overview of the music industry and its future prospects in the world of global entertainment. They illuminate the workings of the music industry, and capture the dynamics at work in the production of musical culture between the transnational media conglomerates, the independent music companies and the public.

The Music Industry will become a standard work on the music industry at the beginning of the 21st century. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of media and communication studies, cultural studies, popular music, sociology and economics. It will also be of great value to professionals in the music industry, policy makers, and to anyone interested in the future of music.

Reviews
"The value of this text lies in its attention to corporate responses to shifting consumption practices. The concepts are clear, the examples are engaging and Wikström clearly identifies how relationships between producer and consumer are being increasingly blurred due to inflexibility of these 'copyright industries'."Sociology

"The Music Industry is a lucid and astute overview of what has happened to popular music since the mp3 met the Internet at the birth of Napster. It is the first scholarly book to make real sense of the present state of the music industry. By looking at the contemporary landscape of popular music from multiple perspectives, including the fan perspective, Patrik Wikstrom provides clear explanations for the consequences new digital media have had for music, musicians, and the recording industry."Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Patrik Wikstrom does a brilliant job of explaining the wide-ranging digital-driven changes taking place in the popular music industry. Until recently it was controlled by a very few multinational corporations, but now artists, independent producers, and fans are freer to create the musicscapes they desire."Richard Peterson, Vanderbilt University

About the Author
Patrik Wikstrom is Research Fellow and Research Manager at Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden.