Designing the Music Business Design Culture, Music Video and Virtual Reality

This book addresses the neglect of visual creativities and content, and how these are commercialised in the music industries. While musical and visual creativities drive growth, there is a lack of literature relating to the visual side of the music business, which is significant given that the production of meaning and value within this business occurs across a number of textual sites.

Popular music is a multimedia, discursive, fluid, and expansive cultural form that, in addition to the music itself, includes album covers; gig and tour posters; music videos; set, stage, and lighting designs; live concert footage; websites; virtual reality/augmented reality technologies; merchandise designs; and other forms of visual content. As a result, it has become impossible to understand the meaning and value of music without considering its relation to these visual components and to the interrelationships between them.

Using design culture theory, participant observation, interviews, case studies, and a visual methodology to explore the topic, this research-based book is a valuable study aid for undergraduate and postgraduate students of subjects including the music business, design, arts management, creative and cultural industries studies, business and management studies, and media and communications. 

Guy Morrow is a lecturer in arts and cultural management at the University of Melbourne. He also collaborates with the visual artist and video director Jefferton James and, in this capacity, has worked with Australian and international artists such as Passenger, Sheppard and Tim Rogers. During his tenure with the Australian band Boy & Bear, a band for which he was one of the founding managers, Guy Morrow negotiated agreements with multinational record companies and booking agencies. He has also published various books and articles on artist management and the international music industries.