Call for Chapters: Music Ecosystems (edited volume)

Call for chapters for an edited volume to be submitted to Springer’s Music Business Research Series
Music Ecosystems: Challenges and Opportunities

Editors
Guy Morrow (University of Melbourne)
Carsten Winter (Hanover University of Music, Drama Media) 

Deadline: 15 October 2024

Following the (15th) International Music Business Research Days conference (Music Ecosystems Research: Challenges and Opportunities) produced by the International Music Business Research Association and held from June 5-7, 2024 at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, we invite you to further elucidate the formation and special features of "music ecosystems" by submitting a chapter proposal for this contributed volume. 

We are looking for contributions that will help to better understand and explain music contexts as "ecosystems". The term "ecosystem", which has now become a key strategic and political term, was introduced into strategicdiscussions to emphasize the fact that the environment of more and more organizations was becoming more dynamic, complex, interdependent and borderless; that such organizations were beginning to resemble "ecosystems", i.e. biological systems in nature (see for e.g. in particular Davidson, Harmer & Marshall 2014 and, for the origin and logic of ecological thinking, the literature review by de Bernard, Comunian & Gross 2021). We only understand these newly (more dynamic, complex, interdependent and borderless) social relationships/environments if we take these characteristics and normative implications that go with them into account. Some even think that we cannot/should not do this with classic economic concepts (e.g. Scharmer & Kaufer 2013), which focus mostly on the economic efficiency of relationships, markets, contracts, advertising, etc. or for example with classic concepts concerning culture for similar reasons.

These new social ecosystem dynamics, with their complexity, interdependence and borderless nature, were developed by everyone who contributed to them, from Napster, MySpace, YouTube to TikTok. Today, almost everyone who does something with music digitally for themselves and others contributes to production and distribution within these more dynamic, complex, interdependent and borderless music ecosystems. In this contributed volume, the term "ecosystem" also refers to the growing data complexity that has arisen in the wake of the arrival of new actors such as Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and algorithms (Clancy 2023). There is a need for new holistic and normative theories in this context: holistic because concepts that, for example, distinguish a private from a public music sector are becoming problematic due to the growing interdependencies between them; normative because this development shows that legitimizing strategic considerations either with a view to economic or artistic goals alone is becoming problematic. Indeed, they are also expected to be more comprehensively oriented towards global sustainability goals, as the European Union (EU) program Music Moves Europe shows very well. Music can also increasingly rarely be meaningfully attributed to either the private or the public sector, since classical music is becoming more and more commercial and popular music in its variousforms is also publicly funded, or must be, because in some instances fewer and fewer private actors are doing so. It is becoming more complicated and it is therefore important for us to understand what is connected to what or whom and why in the music sector today, and what this means for distinguishable connections at different levels, regionally, nationally, internationally and geostrategically. For example, as part of its Music Moves Europe program, the EU wants to find out exactly what a music ecosystem is and what distinguishes the “European music ecosystem” globally from other comparable “music ecosystems” economically, socially, artistically, structurally, etc. It is assumed that such a comparison should best take a conceptual look at all relationships in an ecosystem: not just media or economic or social or cultural relationships, but all the relationships that make ecosystems more valuable for those involved, that are important for the work of the future, and that make them attractive, competitive, sustainable, resilient, productive, creative or innovative.

This poses a completely new conceptual and normative challenge for research into the music business and music culture. It can no longer only explore contractual relationships, transactions (economics), intrinsic value(art and culture), power (politics), networks or more personal relationships. It is long overdue that the use of the term "music ecosystem" becomes more scientific, empirical, conceptual and analytical. This includes examining how different ways of using the term differ; since it has become a key term or metaphor, the term ecosystem has also been used to articulate interests or to develop and legitimize new commercial and private business models. Recently, two new ways of using the term have become more common in music discourse, which have little to do with the previously established uses, which indicates increasing dynamism, complexity, interdependence and the borderless nature of music sectors. For example, it is now becoming more common for representatives of the established music industries to understand their industrial structures in the sector as forming part of an "ecosystem". This use has precursors in the Chicago School of Sociology and makes it possible for the status quo to promote the preservation of their structures in the same way that the preservation of otherwise extinct animals or plants is promoted (e.g. Federal Association of the Music Industry).

In addition to this (conservative) use, we are increasingly encountering a private-commercial technical use of the concept "ecosystem". When it comes to big tech and big content companies, ecosystems are closed, data-based, independent and autonomous private contexts that operate as private markets in which customers belong to those who own the ecosystem infrastructure and that orchestrate the actors and relationships (see, for example, the McKinsey strategists and authors Atluri & Dietz 2023 and, with a stronger focus on the data, see in particular Subramaniam 2022. Also see Giblin and Doctorow, 2022).

Research into newer and more complex music ecosystems is possible from many disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives with a view to a wide variety of objects and processes: What do these developments mean for old and new actors, for old structures and institutions? What new structures and institutions are emerging or being developed? What new relevant contexts and processes are there in music ecosystems? How do they form and reform, with new ones emerging in different contexts? Who will be the new and important players in the music ecosystems of the future and why? Who is changing how and why they operate, with what arguments? Do the dynamics, complexity, interdependence and borderlessness need to be regulated? What role does politics and political goals such as those of the EU play in the context of, for example, the Music Moves Europe program? What distinguishes music ecosystems globally, nationally or as music city ecosystems?

This call is aimed at researchers from all disciplines, as well as players from music culture and the music industries.

- Deadline for submission of abstracts (300-400 words) and bionotes (100 words): 15 October 2024
- Notification of acceptance: 20 October 2024 
- Book proposal submission: 30 October 2024 
- Book contracted: November 2024
- First book chapter draft: 30 April 2025 
- Feedback to the authors: 30 May 2025
- Book manuscript submission: September 2025

Initial expressions of interest, enquiries and/or abstracts should be submitted to editors: Guy Morrow (guy.morrow[at]unimelb.edu[dot]au) and Carsten Winter (carsten.winter[at]hmtm-hannover[dot]de)

References

Atluri, V., & Dietz, M. (2023). The ecosystem economy: How to lead in the new age of sectors without borders. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

De Bernard, M., Cominian, R., & Gross, J. (2021). Cultural and creative ecosystems: a review of theories and methods, towards a new research agenda. Cultural Trends. Routledge (http://doi.org/10.1080/095486963.2021.2004073)

Clancy, M. (Ed.) (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem. Routledge.

Davidson, S., Harmer, M., & Marshall, R. (2014). The new age of ecosystems. Redefining partnering in ecosystem environments. IBM Institute for Business Value.

Giblin, R., & Doctorow, C. (2022). Chokepoint capitalism: How big tech and big content captured creative labor markets and how we’ll win them back. Scribe Publications.

Scharmer, O., Kaufer, K. (2013). Leading from the emerging future. From Ego-System to Eco System-Economics.Berrett-Koehler Publischers, Inc.

Subramaniam, M. (2022). The Future of competitive strategy: Unleashing the power of data and digital ecosystems. The MIT Press.