Australian Music Industry Research Articles

The Conundrum of Intellectual Property Rights: Domestic Interests, International Commitments and the Australian Music Industry

The creation and exploitation of intellectual property is of central importance to Australia's economic security and cultural identity. However, the protection of intellectual property rights can have undesirable consequences including the protection of anti-competitive business environments; the privileging of private over public interest; and the erosion of the state's policy autonomy. In a case study of the recent conflict over the import of compact discs into Australia, this article demonstrates how the Commonwealth Government's attempt to curb the oligopolistic behaviour of the major foreign-owned record companies has been undermined by its desire to demonstrate its commitment to intellectual property rights, especially in the context of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations and the new agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property TRIPS.

Communicating Australian Pop Music

The uncertainties of communicating Australian pop music are examined here by looking at the structure of the Australian music industry, and its relation to the global economy, government policy, technological change and demographic factors. Those issues are examined within the context of the present communications revolution.

Window of Opportunity CD-ROMs, The International Music Industry and Early Australian Initiatives

Over the last five years the CD-ROM has risen to become a prominent new-technology medium and consumer item. This paper documents and analyses the development of CD-ROM software by the international music industry and contextualises this development within a broader history of format successions. It discusses the influential XPLORA 1 disk assembled in collaboration with Peter Gabriel's Real World Company and the manner in which this CD-ROM set what has developed as a standard blueprint for the first wave of music CD-ROMs. The paper then provides a case study of the Australian music industry's exploratory use of the medium during 1994, and the relation of that exploration to national cultural policies. The study concludes by speculating as to the likely obsolescence of the CD-ROM form and its likely dis/re-placement by media such as the Internet