Music & Brands

For the fifth yearbook on music business and music culture research 2021

Edited by: Prof. Dr. Michael Ahlers, Lorenz Grünewald-Schukalla MA, Dr. Anita Jóri, Dr. Holger Schwetter.

Ever since the early formations of a music-based music industry (Tin-Pan-Alley), non music-related companies built and strategically used relationships with music and actors within music culture. At that time mainly cosmetics and tobacco products were promoted by printing sheet music with advertisements. Nowadays the forms in which music and commercial activities of non-music actors are combined have become highly differentiated. At the same time, the market for activities such as sponsoring or advertising has increased in volume.

Most of these contemporary activities are related to the management of brands. In order to build brands, companies publish music magazines, distribute sound recordings, organize and stream concerts, or even sign artists with their own record labels. At the same time, artists and bands are increasingly being managed as brands by the music industry. For some years now, ticketing and record companies have shifted their business models towards the exploitation of their artists and music through advertising and branding, for example by establishing departments that exclusively deal with brand partnerships.

The Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung e.V. (Association for Music Business and Music Culture Research) publishes a yearbook on the state of research within music industry and music culture. Music business and music culture research is not conceived as disciplinary research, but as a field of research that reacts to and raises questions on contemporary issues in a situational and interdisciplinary manner. The yearbook 2021 wants to explore research on music and brands, to gather empirical and theoretical findings and to highlight new research perspectives. Topics of interest may include, but not limited to:

• Brands in music: The roles that brands play in song lyrics, music videos or performances, e.g. as part of the story, an aesthetic or as product placement.
• Music for brands: The production of music for advertising and branding purposes such as synchronization, sound-alikes, ticketing, brand co-operations or music produced by artificial intelligence.
• Brands as actors in the music industry: Brands which invest in music (industry) or build structures such as sound studios or labels or funding and financing music media.
• Music as brand: The management and exploitation of artists as a brand or the development of merchandise and advertising departments within music industry companies.
• Data, music and brand advertising: The creation and exploitation of new data forms and sources, for example in the field of streaming and advertising, data on live events and fans as well as brand co-operations.
• Music technology and instrument brands: The relationships between instrument and music technology companies and artists, e.g. guitar brands and endorsers, influencers, musicians as designers but also music related media and platforms and their relation to advertising and branding.

The call is addressed to scholars of all disciplines working on ‘Music and Brands’, to artists or actors in the music industry. Please submit abstracts (max. 1,500 words, Word file) to [email protected] (deadline: 07.01.2020). We will decide on the acceptance until 20.01.2020. Submission of contributions will be expected until 15.04.2020. The volume will be published in the first quarter of 2021. Notes on manuscript design will be provided in a separate email. If you have any questions, please contact us via [email protected]