Innovation in the cultural industries in the digital age. A case study of the electronic companies in the Brazilian record industry.

• Grant number: 12/10549-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: September 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Theory of Communication
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Vicente
• Grantee: Leonardo Gabriel de Marchi
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project proposes to examine innovation in the cultural industries in the context of digitization of cultural goods, through the case study of Brazilian companies that work with content related to music in the digital communications networks or electronic phonographic companies. The premise is that as long as the trading of phonograms by digital communications networks becomes a strategic for the music industry, the electronic companies assume a privileged position as the agents that establish trade relations between digital content producers (musicians and / or record companies) and consumers (individuals and / or companies), innovating in services and products. Nevertheless, their role as intermediaries of the digital environment constraits their functioning in different ways. Therefore, the hypothesis of the research is twofold. The first one is that innovation depends not on technology each electronic company can develop but on the ability in negotiating with the traditional agents of the music business the right to manage their catalogues. The second is that these negotiations tend to reproduce the relations of power that structure the market for physical discs in the digital environment, creating a division of labour between the electronic companies themselves. Adopting a sociological approach to the communication and culture markets, the goal of this research is to demonstrate that innovation in the current music industry depends not only on technological conditions, but on historically determined cultural and institutional aspects.