17. Convergence, Crisis and the Digital Music Economy

In this chapter we consider the concept of convergence in the context of the complex relationships unfolding between technology, socio-economic factors and the contemporary music industry—the ‘canary down the mine’ of the digital media industries. We observe that when it comes to the music industry, technology convergence trends have generally been defined in rather negative terms. In essence, they are generally represented in terms of a fundamental ‘crisis’ especially for the recorded music sub-sector. Here, we move on to critically interrogate the conventional wisdom that implies technological trends and convergences are leading to some sort of fundamental decay or decline in the power and role of the music industry. Instead, we propose that whilst the initial disruptive effects of the radical new digital technologies may have induced a certain ‘crisis’ for the prevailing models and practices of the recorded music industry, these have also prompted and been accompanied by new opportunities for restructuring and reshaping of the sector’s scope and operations.

We draw upon the concept of convergence to guide our study of a music industry that is widely perceived as a leading site for new media developments. We question the extent to which the music industry is experiencing transformations or significant disruptions resulting from technological innovations, or whether it is actually much more a case of ‘business as usual’ in the commercial music industry. Thus this chapter proposes to interrogate and challenge the dominant framing of current debates around the notion of ‘crisis’ in the music industry.