Music Coding Collective, Spring Week 9 Hyojung Sun: Asset economy in the music streaming business

Event details

In this talk, I argue that recorded music is increasingly turned into assets in the hands of a few big corporations in the streaming age. For this, I will first illustrate how the conventional music economics worked before streaming and include a discussion on the role of copyright in the music business.

I will then review how digital disruption suggested a change, which has since become tamed with the emergence of the music streaming business. Having discussed the background, I then will delve into three prominent changes arising in the streaming music business, (1) accelerated merger and acquisition, (2) how the oligopoly of the major labels exercise their power from the copyright ownership in technoscientific capitalism to dictate the shape of the music business in their favour and (3) the capital investment in rights acquisition, which we argue the streaming music business departs from the conventional commodity-based music economy and marks the beginning of the asset economy.

About the speaker

Hyojung Sun

Hyojung Sun is a lecturer in the business of creative and cultural industries. Hyojung’s academic expertise crosses law, social science, cultural studies and popular music studies. Her main academic interests involve digital and disruptive technology, the music industry, and creative industries more widely.

With her academic background in Science and Technology Studies (STS), she explores contemporary issues in the creative industries in ways technological developments, legal legislations, and social conditions interweave with each other.