Small firm start-up by composers in the recording industry

Abstract

The paper examines new record company formation by music composers. In particular, it addresses their decision to release a record i.e. either to contract their music to record companies or to start-up their own company. In so doing, the research entails the collection and analysis of new data on the behaviour of musicians in the intermediate market for music. The research finds that musicians regard incumbent record companies to have a first mover advantage and that they generally aspire to secure a record contract rather than set-up their own company. Composers who start-up their own company usually do so because of ‘push’ rather than ‘pull’ factors and hence usually represent artistic enterprise which has been rejected by incumbent firms. In this manner, new firm formation by composers does not appear to represent the seeds of future industry.