· To help students establish a contextual and conceptual overview of the music economy.

· To introduce students to the concept of cultural industries as adistinct analytical approach to the business organisation of symbolic creativity

· To assist students in the identification of why music, as a symbolic system, might have economic value

· To help students explain and analyse the ‘value chain’ in music with particular regard to record company operations and to trace its disaggregation in the digitally-impacted music economy.

· To encourage and equip students to explore contrasting (and complementary) theoretical traditionswhich attempt to account for the social, economic and cultural practice ofsymbolic creativity - no tably political economy, cultural economics andcultural studies.

· To encourage and empower students to consider the relationship between the structure and organisation ofthe industry and the style, content and form of its musical products – the social relations of the cultural production of texts

To facilitate in students an appreciation of how changes in the formation and expression of demand also impact how industry (as a production process for the generation of music-symbolic goods) is organised and practised.

· Students will be aware of the increasing economic and social importance of the cultural industries as an industrial sector

• Specifying the music economy and its core constituents - musicians, music companies, music users, music and markets in which music goods are offered and music purchases are made.
  
• Exploring each constituency for its distinctive perspectives, imperatives and practices.
• Identifying and examining the relations between the different constituencies and their defining practices.
• Locating the theorization of music industry in the wider theorization of cultural-industrial production.
• Identifying how changes in digital communication impact music industry.
• Identifying how changes in demand for music goods can also be traced to changes in the composition of demand (notably changes in the idea of ''mass markets'', ''mass occupations'' and ''mass media''.

This module forms the cornerstone of the programme ''MA in Music Industry Studies''. Students will be encouraged to become familiar both with sources of news, information and analysis of contemporary and historical developments in music industry and with critical reflection on such developments. They will also be encouraged to research into music industry. The module is complemented by Music Contracts (MUSI 516) which examines the centarlity of legally-binding agreements to music industry. Critical reflection will be developed in MUSI 510 ''Studying Music Industry''. Key themes will be developed in greater detail in second semester modules.

Lecture - The lecture will presented through a mix of modalities that vary week-on-week: orthodox lectures; guest speakers; screenings; discussions.

As is any economy, the music economy reconciles demand with supply through the generation of a production process to furnish goods for sale in markets. The music production process brings together musicians and the music they make with music companies who work with musicians on fashioning music goods for sale in music markets to music users. Considered in this way, the literature students will need to familairise themselves with falls into six categories: analyses of music-making; analyses of musicians and their experiences; analyses of music companies from and within different music industries; analyses of music use tgether with the theorisation of music industry as a cultural production wherein the relationship with technol ogy forms a key consideration.