UK–Asia music business collaborations: Liverpool Sound City, Modern Sky and Zandari Festa

Abstract

This article explores the dynamics of transnational business collaboration between UK and Asian music companies, focusing on Liverpool Sound City in the United Kingdom, Modern Sky in China and Zandari Festa in South Korea. The specificities of their music business, the nature and motivation for partnership, the respective industry infrastructure and state cultural policies give shape to the outcome of their collaborations, which in turn influence their music products, events, artists and audiences. The complexity of their business transactions and interactions also tell us how the live music sector and its ecologies continue to evolve and reposition themselves in the fast-changing environments of the global music industry. In reflection of an increased transnationalisation and diversification of the global music industries, it is argued that more attention should be given to the transnational and translocal ecologies of live music studies.