Corporate Life in the Digital Music Industry

Toby Bennett teaches and researches Media, Culture and Organization at the University of Westminster, UK. He has previously worked in rights management and with labels, entrepreneurs and policy actors in arts, creative and music industries.

• List of AcronymsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1: Outside In1. Working for the Man?2. Access All Areas3. Big MusicPart 2: Inside Out4. Re-evaluation5. Passion Work6. Standardisation7. Systems Work8. Professionalisation9. Knowledge WorkConclusion: Everyone’s a CriticAppendicesNotesBibliographyIndex

In the post-Napster era, Big Music fragmented and recombined in infrastructures of digital catalogues, streaming platforms, and a new universe for licensing. Within them, Bennett opens our eyes to the thousands of workers who do the humdrum tasks of asset management while they cling to their roles sustaining the cultural power of a global creative industry. In the margins, Bennett points to the porous membrane between an academic critique of corporate popular music and the critical reflexivity within the industry’s corporate cultures.