Editorial

The current issue of the International Journal of Music Business Research contains three articles, two of which deal with the role of collecting societies in a digitised music industry. However, the April issue opens with an article on music consumption in the digital age. Carmen Berné, Manuel Cuadrado-García and Ana Múgica from the University of Valencia use the recently developed Arts and Cultural Organisation (ACO) model to explain music consumption in terms of factors such as habits, opinions, demographic influences and diversity. The ACO model provides an analytical framework to capture the four factors of identity, economy, innovation and well-being and to measure their influence on music consumption in the 21st century. An empirical study was also conducted to determine the influence of opinions, preferences and music consumption habits on current trends in music consumption. The authors conclude: “The analysis reveals age-related differences in the influence on music values. The age group from 18 years to 32 years is the most active in sharing and discussing music topics and shows a preference for pop and reggaeton. They also seek escape and relaxation through music. These findings suggest that demographic variables may behave differently depending on the market context, reinforcing the need for specific research for each target market”.

The second article by Pavel Zahrádka et al. “Frontline Trenches or, Rather, Open Borders? The Multi-territorial Licensing and Digital Export of Czech Music” looks at the impact of the EU Directive on Collective Management and Multi-territorial Licensing (2014/26/EU) on the music industry in the Czech Republic. The aim of this EU Directive was to reduce the transaction costs of licencing music, e.g., by music streaming services in the European Union, by removing the obligation to contract digital rights with national collecting societies and replacing it with a regime of free contractual agreements between rights owners and collecting societies. This new legal framework has led to the creation of rights management agencies representing a specific, mostly Anglo-American repertoire, which is licenced to music users in a one-stop shop. In this context, criticism has been voiced that the new EU Collective Management Directive has brought benefits to the exploiters of large repertoires, but that the exploitation of music catalogues of smaller EU collecting societies could suffer under the new regime. In their study, however, the authors showed that “despite a certain weakening of the position of CMOs from smaller EU member states managing national repertoires, the fears of the unavailability of national repertoires in the offerings of multinational services in other member states have not materialised”.

The third article in this April issue of the Journal also deals with the system of collective rights management of music collecting societies. Hadziarapovic et al. used the system of collective management of music copyrights (SCMMC) in the Netherlands to show how stakeholders anticipate new EU legislation – Directives 2014/26/EU and 2019/790/EU – and how they deal with contradictions and conflict situations. To this end, the authors conducted 24 interviews with representatives of different stakeholders and came to the conclusion that the new legal requirements can by no means be the last word on the subject because there is a lack of participation by some stakeholders, in particular the creators. The authors therefore conclude: “The future of collective music rights management will not be shaped by technology alone, but by the values we embed within it. True progress lies not just in efficiency alone, but also in ensuring that every creator is seen, heard, and fairly compensated”.

The April edition of the journal concludes with a book review by Florin Luchian from the National University of Arts from Iași/Romania, in which he provided a detailed discussion of the recently published book by Andreas Sønning “Creative Concert Production and Entrepreneurship: Concert Dramaturgy and Project Development for the Performing Arts”.

The IJMBR is aimed at all academicians worldwide, from students to professors, from all disciplines and with an interest in music business research. Interdisciplinary papers will be especially welcomed 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.