Customer Reviews

The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry (Communication and Society)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a fascinating and intriguing book. It focuses on the 6 (which is now recently 5) major labels and their international/global market share. It focuses on Warner, Sony, EMI, BMG, MCA and Polygram; and how these transnationals BY FAR dominate the whole music industry worldwide. An oligopoly exists in the music industry. These transnationals have expanded globally as they realized that music is a GLOBAL business. Here is the 1997 worldwide market share: MCA=5.6% BMG=12.1%, Warner=13.1%, Sony=14.5%, Polygram=16.7%, EMI=15.3%, and the indie labels=22.8%. So, the majors control 77% of the world market! Wow! "Because they control so much of the entertainment industry, the oligopolist firms are able to prevent smaller, specialist firms from surviving in popular music niches...As small firms make considerable inroads into the market, large firms respond by absorbing them through merger or joint venture..." ...I have many, many books on the music business, but this book is definitely one of the best. It takes an intriguing look into the global aspect of the music industry in which these majors dominate. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the music business!

I hate to give this book three stars, because I'm certain that at the time it was written it deserved five. The trouble is that much of the value of the book comes from an analysis of the existing market and predictions of future trends and the market has altered significantly since that time and we as readers know how some of those trends did (or didn't) emerge.

Shame, because the parts that are valuable of this book are really valuable-- largely that's the thinking about the influence and study of popular music and the way in which the industry tends to form and (re)form over time. The bibliography was also a pretty great thing.

Publisher-- time for a new edition?