Abstract
Although cultural economics has only very recently become a discipline of its own, questions as whether artistic performances could be really considered commodities have puzzled economists since long. This Introductory study reviews music throughout the History of Economic Thought, showing that—quite unexpectedly—it has been dealt with by authors of nearly all major schools of thought. It then analyses the evolution of the market for music from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, taking into account economic, political, sociological and technological changes. In addition, it briefly summarises the debates about whether or not arts—and music specifically—should be sponsored by governments. The Introduction ends with an overview of the chapters that make up the book, which studies the most famous composers’ finances from Bach and Händel to Falla and Stravinsky.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Cultural economics received professional recognition as a category of economic enquiry in 1992, when the American Economic Association added it to its “Classification of economic disciplines” (Peacock 1993, p. 2).
- 4.
There is a consensus in considering the seminal—and now canonical—work by Baumol and Bowen (1965) the starting point of Cultural Economics. In it the authors apply what is known as Baumol's cost disease, that is, the rise of wages in jobs that have experienced little or no increase in labour productivity, in response to rising salaries in other jobs that have experienced higher productivity growth to performing arts. The point might be summarised as follows: it took the same number of musicians and time to play a Beethoven string quartet when the composers premiered it that now. That is, the productivity of classical music performance has not increased. However, the real wages of musicians have increased substantially since the nineteenth century. Apparently, this could only be compensated by rising prices for concert tickets—thus making them more exclusive—or by seeking additional ways of income such as subsidies, music recordings, merchandising, etc. (Baumol and Bowen 1965, p. 502). See for this also Baumol and Bowen (1966) and Towse (1997).
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It has to be recognized that Frey and Pommerehne (1989, pp. 141–142) touched—although very lightly—upon this matter.
- 7.
See, for example, Plutarch’s Lives. The Translation Called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and Revised by A.H. Clough. Liverpool: Henry Young, 1883.
- 8.
Regarding the fact that all composers included in this study are males, it should be enough to point out that this is a historical work, and that the music composition business has been a nearly exclusively male one (although female singers were among the highest-paid musicians). However, there seems that any possible gender gap among musicians has currently shrunk in terms of market share: measured through the single charts, in 2018 the ten biggest acts spent a combined total of 638 weeks in the top 40, 310 of which (49%) were for songs featuring female artists. A market share that does not seem to have diminished since.
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The Spanish term employed by Pacheco is ingenio, which has a slightly different meaning than genio.
- 10.
According to (Santos 1976, p. 243) “the probabilities determining the expected returns by performing artists are subject not only to the scarcity of genius but also to the size of the net inflow into the performing arts and the perspicacity with which entrants judge their own training and abilities. For example, other things equal, a sudden influx of stage-stuck dilletantes would diminish the probability of a large income, thereby reducing the income expected from such pursuits.”
- 11.
Scherer (2006), drawing on a survey of 646 musicians born between 1650 and 1849 found the Austrian Empire to be the most intensive employer of composer–musicians per million population and also to have given birth to the largest number of composers relative to its population. The former Czechoslovakia was second in births while Germany was second in employment.
- 12.
Unlike Luther, Zwingly (as well as Cromwell) banished music from churches.
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Two explanations for the “superstar” phenomenon—one referring to the demand, the other to the supply side—are pointed out by the authors: (a) The preferences of art consumers are such that they are unwilling to substitute a lesser talent for a greater talent. A succession of mediocre singers, for instance, does not add up to a first-rate performance. […] This unwillingness to substitute easily among talents leads to a relative rise in demand for and income of the superstar, going beyond what may be attributed to pure talent. (b) The second explanation for the huge incomes of superstars compared with other artists may be attributed to technology […]. Owing the modern media, a performer must make more or less the same effort whether there is an audience of 100, 1,000 or 100,000. The cost of production does not rise in proportion to the size of the market.
- 15.
Beethoven aiming at the top-end market, sold subscriptions for manuscript copies of his scores (see Chapter 4).
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For a definition of “bourgeois” see McCloskey (2006, pp. 68 ff).
- 17.
As the design of the new pianoforte allowed for a stronger and louder sound, performers could now play in bigger halls and before larger audiences, thus allowing concerts to become economically more rentable. This implied that soon string instruments would also require a redesign to keep up with the enhanced sound of the piano (cf. Schoenbaum 2012).
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It should be noted that music publishers often obtained musical manuscripts through the copyist and other workers involved in the elaboration of the scores, which they then printed and sold without the composer’s permission, and usually with many mistakes in the transcriptions.
- 19.
The Journal of Cultural Economics dedicated in 1995 a special issue (nº 19) to this topic.
- 20.
For an extensive study about the role of recording technologies on music through the example of the recordings of pieces by Bach, see Elie (2012).
- 21.
Of course, there are notable exceptions as, for example, Wagner managed quite well while being sponsored by Ludwig II of Bavaria.
- 22.
Market-oriented efforts, however, tended to be reduced as composers achieved a comfortable level of affluence (Scherer 2004, p. 89). This author also points out (ibid., p. 198) that those who served as court Kapellmeister or received outright court subsidies were more productive than those who lacked such positions.
- 23.
In this point we disagree with Scherer (2004, p. 201) who affirms that Mozart and Schubert died “in abject poverty”. We conclude that, at the time of his death, Mozart simply had a cash problem, which was solved shortly afterwards. Obviously, many others out of the bulk of musicians not included in this book might have struggled hard to make ends meet.
- 24.
He does so in his very suggestive article “To the immense minority” (El Sol, 26th of December 1935, p. 7).
- 25.
Based on the novel Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger.
- 26.
Also, the composers of the “national schools” such as Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Sibelius might be underrepresented.
- 27.
How much money would classical composers have earned on Spotify? Classic FM. https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/classical-composers-have-earned-on-spotify/ (accessed July 2023).
- 28.
We are purposely careful with our statements regarding streams, downloads, etc., due to the continues changes and high volatility in the data series of online media.
- 29.
It is easy to find these figures in any of the numerous books on practical banking and commerce that were published at the time. I have used Castaño (1871).
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Baumert, T., Cabrillo, F. (2023). Introduction: On the Economics of Music and the Finances of Great Composers. In: Baumert, T., Cabrillo, F. (eds) On Music, Money and Markets. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43226-2_1
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