Special issues of major Journals dedicated to research on music piracy

And returning to a focus on why we are all here, research on music piracy, there is a Special Issue on Consuming the ‘Illegal’: Situating Online Piracy in Everyday Experience scheduled to appear in the February 2013 edition of the Journal 'Convergence'. See http://convergence.beds.ac.uk/ and http://con.sagepub.com/.

Looking forward to seeing what comes out of that. Keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime, why not check out the Special edition of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services on 'The Future of Music Retailing' from March last year? See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09696989/18/2.

There are some particularly excellent qualitative studies in there.

The fact that entire editions of major peer-reviewed Academic Journals such as those listed above are being committed to this issue is a testament to its popularity and prevalence in research circles.

Given that much research is directly and/or indirectly funded by the public, it seems only fair for the public to be informed of the findings of such research. In other words, click the links above! You will be able to read the abstract summaries of the studies at the very least.

Such an argument brings us neatly back to where we started and why this blog was created where discussion must still centre on how content is paid for - not whether or not it should have to be paid for. Knowledge isn't free and all that..

Twitter feed now live @musicpiracyblog with daily tweets.

Open-access article on Nine Inch Nails and how to make the most of the Internet to serve your fans

Turns out the Internet isn't necessary the enemy after all.

If you hop on over to the open-access Journal 'Empirical Musicology Review' you will be able to read an article titled 'Artist autonomy in a digital era: The case of Nine Inch Nails'. It goes into some depth on the recent marketing and distribution methods employed, critiquing Mike Masnick's (2009) business model of 'reason to buy' plus 'connect with fans' as accounting for the success enjoyed by Nine Inch Nails. Oh, and it was written by me.

An accessible read, it also has some take-home messages for new bands and how they can best achieve success in an increasingly segmented marketplace, with content on how different strategies work better for bands depending on their 'stage in the game'.

A PDF version of the article can be downloaded here.

If you haven't already seen it, watch Masnick's (2009) inspirational presentation linked above. The article won't make much sense if you haven't seen it.

Twitter feed online @musicpiracyblog with occasional Tweetage on all things music piracy

References

Brown, S.C. (2011). Artist autonomy in a digital era: The case of Nine Inch Nails. Empirical Musicology Review, 6(4), 198-213.

Masnick, M. (2009). How Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails Represent the Future of the Music Business.

Presentation given at 2009 Midem and Midemnet, Cannes, France.