Hyojung Sun
Lecturer in the Business of Creative and Cultural Industries

Profile

Biography

Hyojung Sun is a Lecturer in the Business of Creative and Cultural Industries. She holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of the book Digital Revolution Tamed: The Case of the Recording Industry” and has conducted a range of  UK government commissioned high-profile projects such as Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era and Music 2025 – the Music Data Dilemma. 

Hyojung has a rich background crossing industry and academia. During her professional career in the IT industry, she was impressed by the potential that digital technology presented. It prompted her to go back to education to study IT policy for her MA at the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. She applied her knowledge in practice during her time at the National Assembly Research Services in Korea, as a legislative researcher, helping policy makers and politicians make sound decisions in the field of media, culture and tele-communications. Prior to joining the University of York, she worked as a research associate in the Creative Industries at Ulster University, a position commissioned by AHRC-funded NESTA’s Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) programme.

Academic

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 each other.

This approach has made a significant contribution to the evidence base and policy decision making, gaining industry-wide support, and is acting as a catalyst bringing industry, academia, and Government together to tackle the issues affecting the music business. This work culminated in the recent project Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era, which garnered international media coverage and informed the parliamentary debate in the UK.

Career

Departmental roles

University roles

Publications

Selected publications

Books

Hyojung Sun (2018) Digital Revolution Tamed: The Case of the Recording Industry, Palgrave Macmillan https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319930213

Book chapters

Hyojung Sun & Dennis Collopy (forthcoming) “Pitfalls, Challenges and Opportunities in Music Data” in Oxford Handbook for Global Popular Music edited by Dr Simone Bridge Krueger, Oxford University Press

Hyojung Sun (2018) “The Times They Are A-Changin’: Digital Music Value in Transition from Digital Piracy to Streaming” in Music Piracy in the Digital Era (2017) edited by Prof. Tom Holt and Dr. Steven Brown, Routledge

Articles

Hyojung Sun & James Stewart (forthcoming), Asset Economy in the Music Streaming Business, Special Issue "The Challenges of Assets: Rethinking Contemporary Economies in Economy and Society.

David Hesmondhalgh, Richard Osborne, Hyojung Sun and Kenneth Barr (2021) Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era, UK IntellectualProperty Office, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/music-creators-earnings-in-the-digital-era

Frank Lyons, Hyojung Sun, Dennis Collopy, Paul O’hagan, and Kevin Curran (2019), “Music 2025 The Music Data Dilemma: Issues Facing the Music Industry in Improving Data Management,” UK Intellectual Property Office

Hyojung Sun (2019) “Paradox of Celestial Jukebox: Resurgence of Market Control”, Creative Industries Journal, 12(1) https://doi.org/10.1080/17510694.2018.1554944

External activities

Memberships

• Board member of the Vienna Music Business Research Days (VMBR)
• Editor for Frontiers in Blockchain
• Member of the Research Expert Advisory Group for UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO)
• Member of Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
• Member of European Society for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
• Member of International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM)