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Success ratios, new music and sound recording copyright

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2017

Richard Osborne
Richard Osborne*
Affiliation:
Department of Performing Arts, Middlesex University, London, UK E-mail: R.Osborne@mdx.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article addresses the uses that record companies have made of two rhetorical tropes. The first is that only one in 10 artists succeed. The second is that they are investing in new music. These two notions have been combined to give the impression that record companies are taking risks both economically and aesthetically. They have been employed to justify the companies’ ownership of sound recording copyright and their system of exclusive, long-term recording contracts. More recently, the rhetoric has been employed to combat piracy, extend the term of sound recording copyright and account for the continuing usefulness of record companies. It is the argument of this article that investment in new music is not necessarily risk-taking; rather, it is the policies derived from risk-taking that provide the financial security of record companies.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , October 2017 , pp. 393 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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