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This paper seeks to highlight hip‐hop's contribution to the entrepreneurship and place marketing literature. Hip‐hop is taken from the lens of an individual artist, Akon, whose music and lyrics – a “hybrid of silky, West African‐styled vocals mixed with North America's East Coast and Southern beats” – provides fresh insights for place marketers.

A “discourse analysis” of the lyrics from two non‐chart songs Senegal and Mama Africa provided the conceptual base for a better understanding of the fusion of music and entrepreneurship with place marketing.

Through music, Akon has bridged socio‐cultural (ethnic cuisine, immigration and social exclusion, faith or spirituality) and economic attributes (notably remittances) – with implications for entrepreneurship and place marketing.

The paper demonstrates that music and entrepreneurship can be extended to place marketing using discourse analysis. Future research may need to consider how to leverage the potential of celebrity endorsement or partnerships in place marketing strategies. It was by no accident that Akon was recruited by PepsiCo for the recently concluded 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa through a charity single – Oh Africa!

The paper is an attempt to fuse three distinct streams of literature (music, entrepreneurship and place marketing). The value lies in extrapolating a well‐known, but little discussed, subject in academia, i.e. the role of hip‐hop music in the place marketing discourse.

This paper aims to address the emerging post-millennium trends in co-creational marketing, in the context of how these trends apply to the recorded and live sectors of the music industry. Consideration of marketing as a broadened concept to include societal processes has implications not only for the marketing concept itself, but also for the roles of the parties implicitly involved in the marketing process. Therefore, the standard and polarising marketing clichés of “firm and customer”, “buyer and seller”, and “producer and consumer” may be replaced with a more contemporary marketing approach in which value can be created and shared by either party.

Initially the paper provides a review of contemporary literature on co-creational aspects of marketing and a subsequent identification of typologies of co-creation practices. Conceptual frameworks pertaining to the relationships of these typologies are then proposed. An extensive review and analysis of journal articles, industry reports and news sources on music industry marketing was conducted. From this review and analysis, 30 examples of co-creational marketing were identified. The music industry was chosen as it constitutes a relevant and contemporary marketing context due to the existence of interactive technology and changing consumer preferences regarding their interaction with music intermediaries and against a context of digital piracy.

Five typologies of co-creational marketing were found to be relevant to the music industry. Key examples of co-creational marketing within the music industry are discussed and analysed in relation to the identified typologies and conceptual frameworks.

The relevancy of co-creational marketing practices to the music industry is investigated, followed by consideration of managerial implications and future research directions.

The theoretical prospect of value co-creation through active consumer contributions to the marketing process is not revolutionary or new, but the implications of such a potential shift in power or influence have developed into a contemporary challenge for marketers.

Although “engagement” is receiving increasing attention in the marketing literature, the characteristics and dynamics characterizing this concept in specific contextual conditions, including consumers’ selection of particular music and ensuing music-related behaviors, remain nebulous to date. This study aims to develop the concept of consumers’ musical engagement (ME) and explore it within a broader nomological network of conceptual relationships.

To investigate the research gap, the authors deploy a survey sampling 2,498 US-based adults to develop and confirm a 25-item ME scale. The authors also test their scale in a broader nomological network of specific theoretical relationships using regression and mediation modeling.

The authors identify three ME factors, namely, social identity, transportive and affect-inducing engagements. The authors find ME to exhibit a nonlinear effect on music consumption with increasing returns. Although both social identity and transportive experiences represent significant predictors of music consumption, the effect of affect-inducing experience is non-significant. Further, the social identity experience has a significantly greater association with music consumption than the transportive experience.

This paper provides a conceptualization and an associated diagnostic tool for ME, in addition to initial insight into the role of ME in a broader nomological network of conceptual relationships. Based on the identified research limitations, the authors also provide key future research directions for ME.

The insight attained into ME may be used to underpin the design, implementation and evaluation of managerial ME-based tactics and strategies in the music industry. In particular, the authors find that successful appeals to consumers’ social identity engagement are a significant driver of increased future music consumption. The authors provide a number of managerial recommendations to develop this particular ME dimension.

This paper provides an ME conceptualization and an associated scale and explores ME within a broader nomological network of theoretical relationships. The authors also draw key implications from these analyses.

The relationship between musicians and the music industry has often been depicted as a dichotomy between creativity and commerce with musicians conflicted between their roles as artists and their roles as marketers of sound. Recently, marketing researchers have problematized this dichotomy and suggested musicians perceive these roles as inevitable and indivisible. However, the processes of how musicians market their sound to the industry gatekeepers remain unclear. This study seeks to find the key industry gatekeepers for musicians and how musicians sell their personal sound to them.

Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, ten interviews with professional musicians across different music genres provided insight into the strategies musicians use to market their sound to industry gatekeepers.

In total, three key gatekeepers and the five strategies that musicians use to sell their sound are identified. The gatekeepers are record labels, other musicians and consumers. Musicians sell their sound to these gatekeepers through the externally directed strategies of using social media to build relationships, defining their personal sound through genre and creating a unique sound, and through the internally directed strategies of keeping motivated through sound evolution and counting on luck.

The findings are limited by the small number of musicians interviewed and the heterogeneous representation of music genres.

The study contributes to theoretical understandings of how musicians as cultural producers market their sound in a commercial industry.

This paper aims to explore how music festival organisers negotiate diversity and inclusion in marketing and promotion practices through symbolic and social boundaries.

Based on semi-structured interviews with 18 festival organisers in Rotterdam and participant observation with six festival photographers I show that symbolic and social boundaries are employed in three areas: (1) boundaries in festival format (i.e. [partially] free or ticketed), (2) boundaries in distribution partners and technologies and (3) boundaries in promotional content.

Symbolic and social boundaries are intentionally used by festival organisers to build and delineate festival audiences. Implications are drawn on current understandings of the accessibility of music festival spaces, arguing that festival research should move beyond within-space dynamics to grasp the negotiation of diversity and inclusion at festivals more fully.

While music festivals are often marketed as celebratory spaces that are “welcoming to everyone”, few studies have investigated diversity and inclusion nor marketing and promotion practices at music festivals. This study shows how festival audiences are shaped through marketing and promotion practices.

This paper investigates how the marketing/entrepreneurship interface functions within the cultural sector. Specifically, the paper considers how cultural entrepreneurs in the music industry market not to customers, but to networks that control the resources necessary to support entrepreneurial ventures. Evidence is drawn from the qualitative research of a study on access to finance by owner‐managers of independent music companies (“cultural entrepreneurs”). The findings support the notion that “legitimation” is a key factor in accessing such resources. Cultural entrepreneurs have difficulties in establishing either “pragmatic legitimation” (derived from the self‐interest of organisations across marketing networks) or “cognitive legitimation” (derived from perceptions of normality and conformity within marketing networks). Marketing strategies at both individual and industry level are put forward to overcome these barriers. For individual businesses, a “selection strategy” using creative clusters or a “manipulation strategy” that manages the cultural environment are recommended. The implications for relationship marketing models are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework for marketing cultural goods (e.g. music) to global markets by examining modes of entry and positioning strategies used by media producers of the South Korean music industry.

An historic analysis was implemented to investigate the modalities and structures through which cultural products are produced and disseminated. Data for this study came from 314 articles collected from www.allkpop.com, a leading English-language, South Korean popular culture news site.

The cultural technology framework consists of the institutionalization of cultural technology, exportation of cultural content, collaborations with local talent, and joint ventures with local markets.

The findings emerge from an analysis of South Korean popular music industries, and further research is needed to generalize the results across cultural industries.

The cultural technology framework can be applied to cultural industries such as music, film, comics, and art, where culture and language could be barriers to adoption.

This study outlines a framework for the modes of entry and positioning strategies of cultural goods (e.g. music) in international markets. Extant literature has examined global marketing from the purview of durable consumer goods and brands, with limited insights into cultural products. More broadly, this paper addresses the call for more qualitative inquiry into international marketing topics.

The learning outcomes of this case are product innovation, the importance of consumer insights and data in marketing and the role of consumer insights in brand revival.

This case study is a fascinating look into how the shift from music compact disc (CDs) to streaming has completely changed consumer behavior. This change in attitude led many music labels down one of two paths as follows: shutting down the business or embracing new business models. The case study aims to bring out essential learning from a company, Saregama, that was on the verge of shutting down because of the losses incurred with the shift in consumer behavior from buying music CDs to streaming music for free on every smart device. This shift led most record companies to become shuttered. However, not all were as fortunate as Saregama, who threaded its way toward profitability. This case analyzes how Saregama turned from a loss-making business unit into a profit center by launching a breakthrough product backed by innovative thinking and strong consumer research. The researcher opted for secondary research based on reports from Deloitte and McKinsey & Company and other credible sources to understand the music streaming market in India. The study also includes excerpts from the interview of Vikram Mehra (MD of Saregama India Ltd.) to various media houses and customer reviews on e-commerce sites.

The case is relevant for learners studying for an undergraduate or graduate program and for discussions for modules such as marketing management and international marketing with a focus on product development and strategy. Applicability the case will provide the following exposure to the learners: the difference between corporate and marketing objectives; Using frameworks such as valuable, rare, inimitable, and organization and SAP-LAP to understand the rationale behind strategic decisions; An understanding of the importance of listening to consumers; Using the right marketing elements such as segmentation, targeting and positioning and marketing mix for a competitive marketing strategy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 8 Marketing.

This article examines the ways in which the popular music industry markets artists through integrated transmedia marketing campaigns. These campaigns unfold across multiple media and create multiple pathways for audience engagement, particularly fan engagement, across social media platforms. The purpose is to further theorise the relationship between artists, the music industry and audiences.

The study used digital ethnography to scrutinise the activities within a contemporary music transmedia marketing campaign, focusing on the release of Taylor Swift's album Reputation as an illustrative case.

The study demonstrates how strategically curated activities encompass platforms' affordances and industry events by making use of fan engagement across social media platforms and streaming services. Fans shift through platforms, as well as across digital and physical spaces, through defined marketing activities at specific times. This article proposes the concept of choreographed engagement to specifically address the ways in which the temporal and spatial aspects of social media marketing are used at the intersection of platform logic, algorithm economy and fan engagement to reach wider audiences.

By proposing the concept of choreographed engagement, the authors bridge the gap between fan practices and marketing practices, providing insight into how commodification of fan engagement is utilised spatially and temporally within the contemporary platform economy. Choreographed engagement constitutes a significant aspect of strategic communication and marketing. The term expands the vocabulary used in the debate on the commodification of artistic work, and audience engagement in the platform era.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth consideration of the color line in the US music market, much deeper treatment than that of a superficial social construct.

Content analysis was performed using archives from the Performing Arts Division of the New York Public Library.

A complex intersection of social and capitalist influences is fueled by culture and economics, filtered through the contributions of artists and media. Six major categories: social, media, artist, culture, industry, and economics contribute to its development and propagation. It continues to affect contemporary music markets.

Interpretation of archival data is subject to availability of material and subjectivity of the researcher. Steps were taken to minimize bias. The research implies an opportunity for the US music market to celebrate diversity and social justice.

Focusing on the symbolic use of music, marketers have the opportunity to empower consumers to embrace diversity, reversing the trajectory of the color line.

Embracing cultural heritage and celebrating diversity can promote economic gain without detriment to cultural interests.

The present research provides a much deeper consideration of the color line in the American Music Market than previous literature does. The consideration includes a combination of forces, from profit focused to cultural.