The Global Jukebox

Book excerpt: Popular music is with us constantly. It is part of our everyday enviroment and in global terms it is now perhaps the most universal means of communication. The Global Jukebox is the first comprehensive study of the international music industry at a time of great change, as the entertainment industry acknowledges its ever growing global audience. Robert Burnett provides an international overview of the music business and its future prospects in the UK, Northern Europe and the United States and Canada. He examines the relationship between local and global cultures and between concentration of ownership (Sony, Warner and the rest of the `big six') and the diversity of music production and consumption. The Global Jukebox not only illuminataes the workings of the contemporary entertainment industries, it captures the dynamics at work in the production of musical culture between the transnational media conglomerates, the independent music companies and the public. It is essential reading for anyone studying popular music.