David Hesmondhalgh: Music Culture in the Age of Streaming

Zoom: https://uio.zoom.us/j/67980436657?pwd=UkltajNTZFhMVTZEL2JzeTBlNkJtUT09
Meeting ID: 679 8043 6657
Passcode: 692990

Since around 2015, a new musical system centred on streaming has emerged, though it takes different forms in different regions and nations. That system has many elements that have long been present in many places. For example, live music performance, and radio, television and film, continue to be important ways in which people experience music. But these now co-exist with music streaming – and the dynamics specific to streaming are arguably much less well understood. In this talk, I summarise some of the main changes and continuities in how music is produced, distributed and consumed in the current era, and I report on recent research investigating music culture in the age of streaming, including debates about unprecedented abundance, personalisation, new dynamics of musical discovery, new developments in musical texts, genres and consumption habits, new controversies about musical change and musical decline, and about the conditions faced by musicians and intermediaries.    

David Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media, Music and Culture in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. He is the author of The Cultural Industries (4^th edition, 2019); Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour (2015, co-written with Kate Oakley, David Lee and Melissa Nisbett); Why Music Matters (2013); Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (2011, co-written with Sarah Baker) and a major book-length report for the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office on Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era (2021, co-written with Richard Osborne, Hyojung Sun and Kenny Barr). From 2021-26, he is PI on a five-year research project, funded by a European Research Council Advanced Research Grant, on Music Culture in the Age of Streaming.