Abstract
The main aim of Patrik Wikstrӧm’s third edition of The Music Industry: Music in the Cloud is to ‘explore the transformation of the music industry that mainly has taken place during the first two decades of this millennium’ (p. 5). He does this by focusing on three ‘tensions or dimensions’: ‘“connectivity vs. control,” “service vs. product” and “amateur vs. professional”’ (pp. 5–6). In a nutshell, Wikstrӧm argues that ‘the new music industry dynamics is characterised by high connectivity and little control; music provided as a service; and increased amateur creativity’, driven by ‘the development of digital information and communication technologies’ (p. 9). The author draws upon interviews conducted with ‘a large number of music industry professionals’ (p. 10). The book is split into Introduction and six substantive chapters. Chapter 1, ‘A Copyright Industry’, explains what makes the music industry a copyright industry and what features distinguish it from non-copyright industries. Chapter 2, ‘Inside the Music Industry’, is one of the rewritten chapters providing a historical account of the 20th century music industry. Chapter 3, ‘Music and the Media’, has also been rewritten. It offers a model for the study of the relationship between recorded music, media and audiences. Chapter 4 is about ‘Making Music’. Chapter 5, also rewritten from the previous edition, explores the role of music fans. The final chapter, ‘Future Sounds’, looks to the future. While the book is advertised as ‘essential reading for students and scholars of media and communication studies, cultural studies, popular music, sociology and economics’, it would probably be mainly appealing to scholars and students of popular music and fandom.