The Classical Music Industry

This volume brings together academics, executives and practitioners to provide readers with an extensive and authoritative overview of the classical music industry. The central practices, theories and debates that empower and regulate the industry are explored through the lens of classical music-making, business, and associated spheres such as politics, education, media and copyright. Part I maps the industry’s key networks, principles and practices across such sectors as recording, live, management and marketing: essentially, how the cultural and economic practice of classical music is kept mobile and alive. The focus of Part II is accessibility and diversity in classical music-making, examining pathways to professionalism, traditional and new forms of engagement, and the consequences of related issues—ethics, prestige, gender and class—for anyone aspiring to ‘make it’ in the industry today. Part III takes up these challenges in a broader series of chapters dedicated to debates that have long encircled the sector but today have a fresh face, as the industry adjusts to the new economics of funding, policy-making and retail. Profound changes in society and politics at large prompt authors to rethink how the industry navigates its way through an unforgiving yet exciting digital era, past the so-called crisis of classical music itself, and on to attracting audiences new and old. The classical music industry is a diverse and fast-changing sector that animates deep feelings. The volume is written by experts who do not shy away from the subject’s challenges and controversies but offer a balanced and rigorous account of the manifold ways in which the industry operates. The first of its kind, The Classical Music Industry is a significant point of reference and piece of critical scholarship, written for the benefit of practitioners, music-lovers, students and scholars alike.

Hardback published June 10, 2018
Paperback published May 28, 2020