Project description
A new role for music in the digital era
Online streaming services have become one of the most popular ways to experience music, with on-demand access being the ‘new normal.’ As expected, a new system of music production, distribution and consumption has developed around these services. However, no integrated analysis of this system and its effects on musical culture is yet available. The EU-funded MUSICSTREAM project will provide such an analysis focusing on the UK and China, but also bringing together researchers investigating other nations and regions through symposia and collaborative publication. The project will also offer an ambitious empirical and theoretical analysis, contributing to our understanding of how culture, political economy and technology interact in the digital era.
Objective
Hundreds of millions of people across the world now experience music via ‘streaming services’, which offer on-demand access, by means of internet or mobile telephony, to vast catalogues of music, either ‘free’ (advertising-supported) or via subscription. A controversial but poorly-understood new system of music production, distribution and consumption has developed around such services, yet there has been no sustained, integrated analysis of this system, the considerable international variations within it, nor its effects on musical culture. MUSICSTREAM provides such analysis, focusing on the UK and China, but also bringing together research from across the world via symposia and collaborative publication. The project therefore offers an ambitious empirical and theoretical analysis that will also contribute to understanding how culture, political economy and technology interact in the digital era. Undertaking such a project requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates analysis of the changing media industries, including new conditions for music creators, and changes in the way people ‘use’ music. The PI is especially suited for such a synthesis, having made significant contributions across all these areas. The aim of MUSICSTREAM is to understand how the role of music in the lives of producers and audiences – a subject the PI has researched extensively - is being reconfigured by developments over which these groups have little or no control. The University of Leeds is an ideal place in which to undertake such research, because it has strong specialisms in music, media and culture, and has a research infrastructure that strongly supports such interdisciplinary enquiry. The very nature of music as a cultural practice is changing across the world, and this project examines why and how this is happening, and the implications for the role of music in people’s lives.
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Funding Scheme
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantHost institution
LS2 9JT Leeds
United Kingdom