Collaborative, co-operative and collective business models in the ‘new’ music industries: a literature review

This literature review takes as its starting point that the challenge facing the music industries – an example of what Christensen and Raynor (2003) call ‘disruptive innovation’ – is primarily one of business models, rather than technology. After all, the shift to MP3 has surely had a far more profound impact than that to cassette or CD. Rather than attempting to cover all aspects of the music industries, I limit my focus to the effects of digital technologies on musicians themselves, specifically in terms of recordings, and their responses in terms of business models – in particular, models that could be seen as somewhere between the traditional label and the fully DIY approach. In reviewing the literature on collaborative, co-operative and collective business models, I aim to identify and define key terms; to cite the various collective, co-operative and collaborative models in the music industries that have been cited by journalists; to analyse their underlying business models as far as possible; and to define the parameters of future research.