THE GLOBAL MUSIC BUSINESS AS AN INFORMATION INDUSTRY - REINTERPRETINGECONOMIES OF CULTURE

In this paper it is argued that the music business should be regarded as an activity trading in information. The paper begins with a review of key themes in the conceptualisation of the music industry within th e cultural economies tradition. These are the tensions between creativ ity and commerce and between global and local processes, and the chara cterisation of the industry in the terms of the flexible specialisatio n and reflexive accumulation theses. It is then suggested that these d ebates have downplayed a key characteristic of the contemporary music industry, its involvement with the creation, production, and distribut ion of information. The emergence of a global music business over the past decade is documented and analysed by means of this framework. Sub sequently, two aspects of the integration processes taking place in th e music industry are considered in terms of their relationship to the information economy: copyright protection and branding, and competitio n between producers of information storage and retrieval devices. The paper concludes that interpreting music as an information industry she ds new light on the music business, and points to important questions for further research within the information economy literature.