Music by Numbers

Name: Music by Numbers
Brand: Unknown
SKU: 9781789387520
Price: 66.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

The Use and Abuse of Statistics in the Music Industries

Summary

Music by Numbers is an edited volume that delves into the pivotal role of data and statistics in the music industry. It explores how metrics such as sales figures, royalty splits, piracy statistics, and digital analytics shape the music available to consumers, influence artists' revenues, and guide governmental policies. Featuring contributions from leading music business scholars and practitioners, the book critically examines five key areas: sales and awards, industry policy, live music, piracy, and digital solutions. It reveals the often opaque culture and politics behind these pervasive yet questionable statistics, offering fresh insights into how the music business is measured and understood.
Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$66⁹⁹

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Music by Numbers

$66⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is well suited for academics, students, industry professionals, and anyone interested in the intersection of music, data analytics, and industry practices.

This edited collection examines statistics within the music industry. Its aim is to expose the historical and contemporary use and abuse of these numbers, both nationally and internationally. It addresses their impact on consumers’ choices, upon the careers of musicians and upon the policies that governments and legislators make.

Description

An edited volume that examines the data and statistics that are key to the music industry.

The music industries are fuelled by statistics: sales targets, breakeven points, success ratios, royalty splits, website hits, ticket revenues, listener figures, piracy abuses, and big data. Statistics are of consequence. They influence the music that consumers get to hear, determine the revenues of music makers, and shape the policies of governments and legislators. Yet many of these statistics are generated by the music industries themselves, and their accuracy can be questioned. Music by Numbers sets out to explore this shadowy terrain.

This edited collection provides the first in-depth examination of the use and abuse of statistics in the music industry. Written by noted music business scholars and practitioners in the field, the book addresses five key areas in which numbers are employed: sales and awards; music industry policy; live music; music piracy; and digital solutions. The authors address these subjects from a range of perspectives: some of them test the veracity of this data and explore its tactical use by music businesses; others help to generate these numbers by developing surveys and online projects and offering candid observations.

The aim of this collection is to expose the culture and politics of data. Music industry statistics are pervasive, but despite this ubiquity, they are underexplored. This book offers a corrective by providing new ways by which to learn music by numbers.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Chris Woods of Popular Music praises the book as an expansive and well-researched reference on our digital age's numerical reflections.

Erik Hitters from the International Journal of Music Business Research highlights its critical approach to the manipulation of data within the music industries and values its contribution for guiding future research on music business metrics.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781789387520

Publisher: Intellect

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 February 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Intellect Books

Edition: New edition

Illustration: 11 Diagrams

Contributors:

Edited by Dave Laing
Edited by Richard Osborne

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 170.0mm

Height: 244.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 256

Collections

Education & Reference Non-Fiction

About the Author

Richard Osborne is Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at Middlesex University. He is the author of Vinyl: A History of the Analogue Record (Ashgate, 2012) and co-editor with and Zuleika Beaven and Marcus O’Dair of Mute Records: Artists, Business, History (Bloomsbury, 2018). Outside of academia, he has worked in record shops, held various posts at PRS for Music and co-managed a pub.

He publishes widely in the field of popular music studies, including the blog ‘Pop Bothering Me’ (http://richardosbornevinyl.blogspot.co.uk/).

Dave Laing’s books include The Sound of Our Time (Sheed and Ward, 1969); Buddy Holly (MacMillan, 1971); The Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock, co-authored with Karl Dallas, Robin Denselow and Robert Shelton (Eyre Methuen, 1975); Encylopedia of Rock, co-edited with Phil Hardy (HarperCollins, 1976); The Marxist Theory of Art (Prometheus, 1979); One Chord Wonders (Open University Press, 1985); The Faber Companion to 20^th Century Popular Music, co-authored with Phil Hardy (Faber & Faber, 1990); The Guerilla Guide to the Music Business, co-authored with Sarah Davies (Continuum, 2006); and Popular Music Matters: Essays in Honour of Simon Frith, co-edited with Lee Marshall (Ashgate, 2014). One of the founding figures of popular music studies, Dave sadly passed away in 2019 when Music by Numbers was in production.