Editorial

The April 2024 issue of the International Journal of Management and Business Research (IJMBR) contains two research articles and two book reviews. The first article, by Alex Timewell, entitled “Music Business Education in the Global Creative Industries”, is a valuable contribution that reflects on the current state of music business education in universities and conservatories. The author conducted a study to identify the indicators of a successful career in the music business to develop a more comprehensive framework for music business education in the context of evolving industry structures and technological challenges such as artificial intelligence (AI). At the end of the article, Timewell concludes that “[t]he creative and cultural industries need to be understood as a related intertwining field, of which music is a part, but also from which music is distinct in its own peculiarities and particularities. As music business educators, we need a framework within which we can place and shape what we do, whilst contributing to and taking from debates in related fields. It is not enough to say the music industry is the combined artists’ assets of composition, recording, performance and brand. We need to think more deeply about framing and consequences”.

The second article in the journal, “Factors Predicting Singers’ Work Efficiency and Singers’ Singing Peak” by Xuejie Huang and Mei Foong Ang, presents a study on the work efficiency of singers in the recording studio. The authors identified nine success factors, which they included as variables in the performance of songs during recording sessions. In a statistical analysis, the authors found that: “(1) The rework times of a singer are predicted mainly by intensity, singing duration and rhythm consistency. (2) Singing duration mediates the connection between intensity and rework times. (3) Singing peak exists in the performance”. This helps to understand how the valuable time in a recording session can efficiently be structured.

Two book reviews round off the April 2024 issue. Guy Morrow of the University of Melbourne contributed both. The first is on the bestselling book “Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labour Markets and How We Will Win Them Back” by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctrow, who argue that big tech, big media and big content are creating barriers to entry in what they call “chokepoint capitalism”. The second book review is of Martin Clancy's Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem, which is one of the first pieces to highlight the impact of AI on the music industry and its business models. Martin was also the keynote speaker at the International Music Business Research Days at the University of Agder in Kristiansand/Norway, where he presented his concept of a fair use of AI in the music business.

The IJMBR is aimed at all academicians around the world, from students to professors, from all disciplines and with an interest in music business research. Interdisciplinary papers will be especially welcome if they address economic- and business-related topics in the field of music. We look forward to receiving as many interesting papers as possible. Please submit your articles at the journal's webpage: https://www.editorialmanager.com/ijmbr/default1.aspx.