Where Corporate Culture and Local Markets Meet Music and Film Majors in the Netherlands, 1990-2005 Miriam van de Kamp The research for this book was conducted at the Faculty of History and Arts (FHKW) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. It was co-financed by TNO Information and Communication Technology, Delft. Publisher: ERMeCC, Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture Printer: Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede Cover design: Koen Verspaget ISBN: 978-90-76665-18-4 © 2009 Miriam van de Kamp Where Corporate Culture and Local Markets Meet Music and Film Majors in the Netherlands, 1990-2005 Waar bedrijfscultuur en lokale markten elkaar ontmoeten Muziek- en filmmajors in de Nederlandse markt, 1990-2005 Thesis to obtain the degree of Doctor from the Erasmus University Rotterdam by command of the rector magnificus Prof.dr. S.W.J. Lamberts and in accordance with the decision of the Doctorate Board The public defence shall be held on Thursday 25 June 2009 at 11.00 o’clock by Maria Cornelia van de Kamp born in Alphen aan den Rijn Doctoral Committee Supervisors: Prof.dr. A. M. Bevers Prof.dr. P.W.M. Rutten Other members: Prof.dr. V.A.J. Frissen Prof.dr. M.S.S.E. Janssen Prof.dr. W.C. Uricchio Co-supervisor: Dr. H.J.C.J. Hitters Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 INTRODUCTION 13 Three complex relationships 14 Theoretical embeddedness 15 Scope 16 Key terms 19 Outline 20 CHAPTER 1 CULTURAL GLOBALISATION 21 Globalisation 21 Approaches of cultural globalisation 22 Cultural imperialism 22 Interactive approaches on global-local relationships 24 Glocalisation 25 Global ecumene 26 Transnational society and cultural world system 29 Implications for research 32 CHAPTER 2 CULTURAL INDUSTRIES: THE BUSINESS OF PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING CULTURAL PRODUCTS 35 Defining the cultural industries 35 Contents | 5 Characteristics 38 Ways to cope with uncertainty and risks 40 The music industry 45 The film industry 50 Concluding remarks 55 CHAPTER 3 INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL INDUSTRIES: COMBINING WORLDWIDE ACTIVITIES WITH OPERATION IN LOCAL MARKETS 58 Multinational firms 58 The role of the subsidiary 64 Global media conglomerates 68 International music industry 73 International film industry 77 Conclusion 80 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCHING INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN THE NETHERLANDS 83 Conceptual framework 83 Operation in a local market 86 Research questions 91 Research strategy 92 Research design 95 Quantitative research: market and chart data 95 Qualitative research: desk research and interviews 98 Interviews 99 Research experiences 101 Validity and reliability of the study 102 6 | Where Corporate Culture and Local Markets Meet Ethical responsibility 104 CHAPTER 5 THE DUTCH MUSIC MARKET, 1990-2005 105 The Dutch music market 105 Main players 109 The majors 112 The independents 125 Characterisation of the Dutch music market, 1990-2005 133 CHAPTER 6 THE DUTCH FILM MARKET, 1990-2005 141 The Dutch film market 141 Main players 146 The majors 150 The independents 161 Non commercial distributors 167 Characterisation of the Dutch film market, 1990-2005 168 CHAPTER 7 DEALING WITH THE DUTCH MARKET. THE OPERATION OF THE MUSIC DIVISIONS OF SONY, UNIVERSAL AND WARNER IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1990-2005 176 Sony Music/SonyBMG Music Entertainment 176 Polygram/Universal Music 181 Warner Music 185 Sony Music (SonyBMG), Universal Music (Polygram) and Warner Music in the Dutch music market, 1990-2005 188 Concluding remarks 195 Contents | 7 CHAPTER 8 DEALING WITH THE DUTCH MARKET. THE OPERATION OF THE FILM DIVISIONS OF SONY, UNIVERSAL AND WARNER IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1990-2005 198 Columbia Tristar/Sony Pictures Releasing 198 UIP 202 Warner Bros 206 Sony Pictures, UIP and Warner Bros in the Dutch film market, 1990-2005 211 Concluding remarks 217 CHAPTER 9 INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN LOCAL MARKETS 219 International cultural industries 219 Conditions for involvement in domestic products 222 Another way to look at international cultural industries 223 Organisation culture 224 Cultural entrepreneurs 227 No cooperation between the music and film division 228 Influence of policy 228 Future research 229 The future of local 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY 235 SOURCES 242 APPENDICES 248 A: Analysing the music charts and the top 20 films 248 B: Operationalisation of the components of the conceptual framework 251 C: Interview procedure 253 8 | Where Corporate Culture and Local Markets Meet D: Interview analysis 254 E: Model for funding Dutch film production, 1999-2005 256 F: Company characteristics and operation in the Dutch market for Sony Music (SonyBMG), Universal Music (Polygram) and Warner Music 257 G: Company characteristics and operation in the Dutch market for Sony Pictures, UIP and Warner Bros 259 NEDERLANDSE SAMENVATTING 261 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 272 Contents | 9 10 | Where Corporate Culture and Local Markets Meet Acknowledgements ‘People shape social structures and meanings in their contacts with one another, (…) and societies and cultures emerge and cohere as results of the accumulation and aggregation of these activities.’ (Hannerz, 1992: 15) Interaction is a recurring theme in this book: interaction between organisations and markets, interaction between people, interaction between global and local culture and interaction between creativity and commerce. The PhD research that I undertook for this book shows similar characteristics. I was inspired by others and interviewed people working at the majors in the Dutch music and film industry. In addition I got feedback from various directions; by discussing my work with colleagues at Erasmus University and TNO but also with colleagues that I met at conferences abroad. All these interactions were very valuable and led to this final product. During the past four years, I conducted the research for this book at the Faculty of History and Arts (FHKW) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. It offered me a pleasant and inspiring working environment. TNO Information and Communication Technology, Delft partly financed this research during these four years. I would like to thank them for their generous support and for offering me a workplace at their office in Delft to share insights during the last half year of the research. I would like to thank a number of people. First of all, Ton Bevers, Paul Rutten and Erik Hitters who supervised me as a team. Each offered me specific insights or feedback while the collective meetings blended these insights and feedback into a comprehensive approach. Ton, thank you for joining the team after the first year. Your confidence and encouragement inspired me to continue at moments that I was puzzling about how to write certain chapters. Paul, thanks for sharing your insights into and experiences with researching the Dutch music industry, for remaining a supervisor when you moved to the University of Leiden and for your thought-provoking feedback. Erik, thank you for offering me the opportunity to drop into your room with questions or for discussion at anytime and for your very constructive and quick feedback when necessary. I really appreciate our good cooperation, also in teaching classes and writing papers. I am very grateful to all interviewees for making time in their busy schedules to discuss their activities and experiences in the Dutch music and film industry. I would like to thank the Dutch Film Fund, the Dutch Film Distributors Association (NVF), Dutch Film Exhibitors’ Association (NVB), the Dutch Association for Producers and Importers of Image and Sound Carriers (NVPI) and GFK Mega Charts for providing me a data selection of their databases or access to their archived annual reports. Thank you Michael Christianen for being so generous as to give me your interview transcripts from interviews Acknowledgements | 11 that you conducted in the mid 1990s in the Dutch music industry and for the papers based on your research. Thanks also to Gwenny van Hasselt and Maaike Wachters for their assistance in compiling the database and transcribing the interviews respectively. I much appreciated the help I received from Claire Coombes, Sandy van der Meer Lieftinck and Koen Verspaget with editing the English text and with the lay-out of the book respectively. I am grateful to Dorothee Verdaasdonk and Lisette Derksen for their feedback and providing in-depth information for the chapter on the Dutch film market. I would like to thank Fransje de Jong for providing information on the start of the film majors in the Dutch market between 1910 and 1940 and Marc Verboord for his help and comments on the analysis of the annual album top 100 and top 20 film database. Martijn Kleppe and Ben Wubs offered me useful feedback on the chapters with the case studies. I would like to thank my colleagues within the Department for the Study of the Arts and Culture and the Department for Media and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the colleagues of TNO Information and Communication Technology, Delft for their interest in and feedback on my research. The ‘VICI team’ (Susanne Janssen, Giselinde Kuipers, Marc Verboord, Pauwke Berkers, Alex van Venrooij and Annemarie Kersten) at the Erasmus University deserves a special mention as they allowed me to remain a kind of member of the group while I no longer worked for the project. The meetings with Tim Dowd and Vaughn Schmutz (Emory University, Atlanta), who are both associate researchers in this team, contributed to that. Special thanks also to Simon Frith and Philip Schlesinger for offering me the opportunity to stay at the Stirling Media Research Institute in autumn 2005 as a visiting research student and for providing me with valuable feedback during that stay. This research visit was made possible by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and Vereniging Trustfonds Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. I would like to thank Marieke Lefeber and Mijke Slot for taking on the role of viva witnesses (paranimfen). Our meetings often resulted in a nice distraction from work, although discussions on doing research and my research topic did occur as well.