Abstract
The pay and working conditions of musicians have, until recently, very rarely been an issue of explicit public concern---and interest on the part of politicians and policy-makers has been even more unusual. Our chapter recounts how in the UK growing awareness of---and solidarity with---the working conditions of musicians has recently fed an unprecedented degree of political scrutiny of the music industries. We explain the process by which a UK parliamentary inquiry into The Economics of Music Streaming was launched in 2020 by the Committee overseeing the national government's Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) leading to a substantial report that was surprisingly critical of the music industries. The earnings and well-being of musicians in the age of streaming were central concerns and this political scrutiny became the object of significant media coverage and public debate, internationally as well as in the UK. In addition, a substantial body of research on these and related topics was commissioned by UK government agencies, both before the launch of the Inquiry and as part of the UK government's mandatory response to it.
| Original language | Undefined/Unknown |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Music Industry Studies |
| Editors | David Arditi, Ryan Nolan |
| Place of Publication | Cham |
| Publisher | Springer Nature Switzerland |
| Pages | 605-625 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-031-64013-1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |