Ian Dobie

Current Position: Research Assistant (PhD Candidate)

The Impact of the Internet and new technologies on the Music Industry

My thesis examines the structure of the phonographic industry and its position within the global media complex. It analyses the challenges facing the industry as music became first digitised, then networked, and examines the subsequent strategic industry responses as it attempts to deal with such a transition. The main thrust of the thesis investigates the issues surrounding new models of distribution and consumption and the implications that these issues provide the industry with. Some of the topics covered include:

• The properties of, and issues concerning, music as fluid digital information
• The extent and the implications of online piracy
• An examination of the relevant laws and how they apply to digital intellectual property
• The context and the ethics of free music
• The ethical development of the Internet and how this informs current practice
• Copyright law and how this interfaces with digital intellectual property
• The implications of IP protection

Journals and Papers:

Stop That Train, I'm Leaving the effect that globalisation has on the artist/label relationship, the ways that the Internet can act as a more cost-effective publishing medium, and how this is beginning to change the nature of the artist/label relationship. (paper from the conference "Out of Control: MP3 and the Popular Music Industry", University College Worcester, 20/04/01).

GRIMSHAW, M., YONG, L., DOBIE, I. (1999) "Boom Booom Net Radio," The Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure, 1(1).

Ian Dobie can be contacted on:

+44 161 295 6230
or by email