Artists' earnings and copyright: a review of British and German music industry data in the context of digital technologies.

Abstract

Digital technologies are often said (1) to enable a qualitatively new engagement with already existing cultural materials (for example through sampling and adaptation), and (2) to offer a new disintermediated distribution channel to the creator. From a review of secondary data on music artists’ earnings and seven in-depth interviews, it appears that both ambitions have remained, until now, largely unfulfilled. The paper discusses to what extent the structure of copyright law is to blame, and sets out a research agenda.