Rethinking the music industry

This article examines the following question: what is the music industry? It surveys the usage of the term in various arenas and argues that it is often used in ways which imply that the industry is a homogenous unit with shared objectives. However the reality is that this picture is outdated and gives an inaccurate portrayal of the organisational structure of the global music economy in mid-2000s. The conclusion of this article is that there is no single music industry but there are people working in a range of industries centred around music.