23 New economics of the music industry: Blockchains, metadata and agency problems
- Resource Type
- Book
- Authors
- Rennie, Ellie; Potts, Jason; Sussex, Merida
- Source
- De Gruyter Handbook of Media Economics. :333-348
- Subject
- Language
The music industry has long been dependent on particular technologies for tracking artistic production and consumption. In recent years, new metadata technologies have emerged through blockchain technology. These present new opportunities for disintermediating music production (i.e., solving what economists call ‘agency problems’) and disrupting economic organizations and business models. However, adopting these new institutional technologies is proving to be complex and difficult. This chapter considers the metadata problem and highlights the role of governance entrepreneurship in the music industry.