Balancing Creativity and Commerce Marketing Strategies in the Music Industry Anita Verheij 292294av
[email protected] Rotterdam, August 2006 Erasmus University Rotterdam Faculty of History and Arts Dr. E. Hitters Dr. S. Janssen A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER DEGREE MEDIA & JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS ERASMUS UNIVERSITY ROTTERDAM Preface For this master thesis, I sought to combine two of my greatest passions: marketing and music. Marketing in the music industry is after all what I would like to do as a profession. Having done a previous study in marketing, I felt I missed a profound knowledge of the cultural industries and in particular the music industry. Through mandatory literature and assignments, the master course in Media & Journalism has contributed to this knowledge. However, I felt it was up to me to make a link between the marketing knowledge I have stored in my brain, and the business of music. I found that a master thesis on the subject of music marketing would be an excellent opportunity to do so. I consciously made the decision to choose a subject that would serve as a preparation for my future. I am aware that marketing is not a typical research topic in sociology but to me it was a challenge to research this topic in order to try to make a contribution to this field. Marketing is an important aspect of the cultural industries after all and plays a major part in the music industry. Some say it will even do more so in the future.