Preface for Yuebo Wang

Yuebo Wang’s ‘Theory of the Music Industry’ is a very timely book for the people’s Republic of China.Prof. Wang was a Research Fellow in the Department of Music in the University of Liverpool and studied in the Institute of Popular Music （IPM）. The IPM created the first Masters’ programme in Music Industry education in 1999 （MBA Music Industries）. This degree was replaced by an MA in Music Industry Studies in 2004.In both instances the University of Liverpool was the first university to introduce music industry teaching at Master’s level.

Prof. Wang studied with us in Liverpool and has taken this study to China’s emergent music industry. Clearly，there are significant differences between China and the UK，but certain essentials are common to both systems – there cannot be music without musicians；there cannot be music business without agreements between musicians and music companies. Prof. Wang’s work is a pioneering study of how these core relationships are organised and are expressed in China.

My own work derives from the understanding I gained into music industry as a songwriter and member of the band Latin Quarter. I wrote my PhD as a study of the processes that musicians experienced following the signing of recording contracts with major record companies. Since creating the MBS Music Industries programme much has changed，most significantly the impact of digitization on music industry. Beginning with illegal file-sharing，access to copyrighted recordings has followed a turbulent path – from the introduction of iTunes and the iPod to the rise of social media and music streaming services. These are exciting times for musicians but they are also challenging ones. Dr./Prof. Wang’s book allows students of music industry in China to access the most up-to-date thinking about how music industry is structured and is to be welcomed.

It is 50 years since the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band，by the Beatles. This was the 8th album by the group but what made it different from its predecessors was that，following a years of touring，the Beatles decided to stop giving live performances and to exist only as a group that made and released recordings of their songs. At the time of this decision，the Beatles existed as the most successful popular music act in the world；they were popular across the continents. Their decision to concentrate on making and selling albums created a sea-change in how music business was aligned and it is only now，50 years later，that we see significant change in that alignment.

There are three main industries of music：Recording，Live Performance and Music Publishing. The original music industry was live performance. Paying to see music acts （as well as other entertainers） was a facet of the rise of industrialisation that occurred in Europe during the 19th Century. The creation of new industrial towns and the associated rise in population，created new conditions for commerce in music. As Music Hall became the dominant form of commercial popular entertainment，Music Halls exerted a demand for new songs to be written. As new songs were written，a parallel business developed in selling printed copies of those songs. As the printing of original materials was already governed by the law of copyright，copyright was extended to popular music. Such was the demand for printed copies of compositions，music publishing developed as the second industry of music.

The key characteristics of music industry are that there are always social and material relations of production among five constituent elements：（in nor order of precedence）：musicians，music companies，music users and music itself，where these relations are brokered by markets. Essentially，where the West is concerned，the live performance industry remained the most important of the music industries for at least the first half of the 20th century. Certainly，the coming of radio，and especially commercial radio in the USA，exerted a demand for recordings （although radio also featured the live performance of music），but the slump in the European economies in the decade following the First World War，and the Depression in the US economy in the 1930s，followed by the Second World War，meant that there was insufficient，sustained mass demand for recordings until the 1950s.

What is clear about recorded music，certainly in the Western experience，is that there is and continues to be a collapse in the desire to buy and to own recordings on fixed carrying media. Instead，more and more music users prefer to ‘rent’ music. By this I mean that music users either pay a monthly subscription to a music ‘streaming’ service （such as Spotify），or else they pay only indirectly for access to recorded music through an internet-based service such as Youtube （‘indirectly’ in the sense that they consume advertising which costs are added to the retail price of the goods so advertised）. This has changed the business model of the recording industry，fundamentally：after four decades in which the organisation of the purchase or pre-marketed recordings encoded in physical carriers proved a hugely-lucrative business，the market for recordings accessed in the se ways has shrunk by 50%，and two of the major record companies – EMI and BMG – have gone out of business.

Taken as a whole，the ‘new’ music industry that has developed through the impact of digitization on the recording industry，is both more lucrative and yet less stable than the previous business model which was dominated by the needs，perspectives and imperatives of the major record companies. Consequently，what currently exists is a kind of extremely hybridised version of the industry that existed before the impact of digital practices of communication and commerce. Essentially，all five components of music industry persist：there are still musicians，there are still music users，there is still music and there are still markets. Further，there are still music companies，but these have changed. The key change is now that a music company does not have to be a record company，as such：because of digitization，recording is now far easier （and far cheaper） than at any time in the past. Previously，record companies were ’talent spotters’ – they estimated which new musicians seemed best to promise high market return，and they then ‘signed’ these musicians （put them under contract） to make records. Because recording was expensive，and because the distribution of recordings was even more expensive，record companies organised all aspects of the life of a star. Now it is that ‘organisation’ that counts – the ordinary musician can make a record，what they cannot do unaided is to achieve and maintain prominence in a world where all people with internet access can post news and information about themselves：a music companies job is to make a particular musician or set of musicians ‘stand out from the crowd’ and the most successful companies are those who understand how to ‘game’ the contemporary ‘mediascape’.

Contemporary music industry is a hybrid form of the form of – recording industry-dominated，album-centred – music industry ushered in by the Beatles. Under this form，music users still want ‘stars’，and they still want their stars to exhibit values the users cherish in their own lives. But music users now want to pay little or nothing for access to recordings. This，then，means that music companies must find ever-inventive ways of monetising the ‘total star text’ （to quote Negus，1992） and of attracting，and maintaining，the attention of music users to the particular text they are promoting. All of this then relies on the by now historic concept of ‘Intellectual Property’，texts can only generate income if their trade-marks and their associated compositions are protected under the concept of copyright. Constantly，internet users breach copyright and disregard it；but in doing so they destroy the mechanisms by which they get what they still want – human commodities expressed as brands.

To explore and unpick the contradictions and the defining practices and characteristics of music industry under digital conditions we need to turn to authors such as Jones （2102），Sterne （2012） and Mulligan （2015）. Wang，Yuebo has provided such an analysis for PR China’s emergent music industry and I recommend this title to you.

Dr. Michael L. Jones