The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry

by Robert Burnett

Book Overview

Popular music is with us constantly. It is part of our everyday enviroment and in global terms it is now perhaps the most universal means of communication.
The Global Jukebox is the first comprehensive study of the international music industry at a time of great change, as the entertainment industry acknowledges its ever growing global audience. Robert Burnett provides an international overview of the music business and its future prospects in the UK, Northern Europe and the United States and Canada. He examines the relationship between local and global cultures and between concentration of ownership (Sony, Warner and the rest of the big six') and the diversity of music production and consumption.
The Global Jukebox not only illuminataes the workings of the contemporary entertainment industries, it captures the dynamics at work in the production of musical culture between the transnational media conglomerates, the independent music companies and the public. It is essential reading for anyone studying popular music.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415092760
• ISBN13: 9780415092760
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Very well written, well-researched, and very informative

This was a fascinating and intriguing book. It focuses on the 6 (which is now recently 5) major labels and their international/global market share. It focuses on Warner, Sony, EMI, BMG, MCA and Polygram; and how these transnationals BY FAR dominate the whole music industry worldwide. An oligopoly exists in the music industry. These transnationals have expanded globally as they realized that music is a GLOBAL business. Here is the 1997 worldwide market share: MCA=5.6% BMG=12.1%, Warner=13.1%, Sony=14.5%, Polygram=16.7%, EMI=15.3%, and the indie labels=22.8%. So, the majors control 77% of the world market! Wow! "Because they control so much of the entertainment industry, the oligopolist firms are able to prevent smaller, specialist firms from surviving in popular music niches...As small firms make considerable inroads into the market, large firms respond by absorbing them through merger or joint venture..." ...I have many, many books on the music business, but this book is definitely one of the best. It takes an intriguing look into the global aspect of the music industry in which these majors dominate. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the music business!