I curse your preoccupation with your record collection: The Fall on vinyl 1978-83

This chapter is in a book that is based upon papers given at the conference Messing Up The Paintwork, Salford University, 9 May 2008, the first conference to be based on the work of the Manchester band, The Fall. My chapter is based on research that I have undertaken for my monograph on the vinyl record, which is then related to the output of the band

Live music vs. recorded music

This chapter explores claims that the live music industry generates more revenue than the recorded music industry in the UK. To do so, it takes a close look at statistics compiled by PRS for Music and UK Music, addressing four questions: (1) What is the purpose of their statistics reports? (2) What do they include in their totals for ‘recording’ and ‘live’? (3) How is the statistical information categorized? (4) Are performers able to assess their share of the money

At the sign of the swingin’ symbol: the manipulation of the UK Singles Chart

This chapter provides a history of the statistical compilation of the UK singles chart, detailing who is responsible for compiling the singles chart, the breadth of the survey, the representation of the results, the frequency of the chart, and how a ‘single’ is defined

Is equitable remuneration equitable? Performers' rights in the UK

British musicians receive “equitable remuneration” when their recordings are played in public or are broadcast. Performers’ rights are weaker than those of songwriters, however. This is largely because songwriters are the first owners of their copyrights, whereas performers rarely own the copyright in their sound recordings. This article concerns the remuneration of musicians’ labor. It looks at the legislative evolution of performers’ rights in the UK and addresses the influence that songwriters, record companies, and the Musicians’ Union have had on this area of copyright law. It argues that performers will only achieve legislative parity with songwriters if the ownership and conceptualization of sound recording copyright are reconfigured. This copyright should be awarded to performers for their creative labor, rather than to record companies for their financial and administrative endeavors

India on film, 1939-1947

This chapter examines documentary films made about India during the period 1939-47. It contrasts the output of the official Indian film organisations Film Advisory Board and Information Films of India, with films produced by British governmental and military departments, and films produced by the commercial American company March of the Time. These films are revealing both of attitudes towards India and the question of independence, and of the nature of the Allied partnership during World War II. The work is part of the AHRC-funded project, Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire, and is the result of primary research into films held by the BFI and the Imperial War Museum, and India Office documents held at the British Library

Colonial film: moving images of the British Empire

Between 2009 and 2010 I was employed as a postdoctoral researcher on the AHRC-funded project, Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire. The primary outcome of this project was a database detailing the colonial films held by BFI, the Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. Many of these films are not widely known, and the project provided the first thorough documentation of these materials. I was employed to write 95 1,000-word essays about selected films from this database. These essays were broken down into context and analysis of the films and were reviewed by archivists at the relevant institutions, as well as by the project’s co-directors, Colin MacCabe (Pittsburgh) and Lee Grieveson (UCL)

Success ratios, new music and sound recording copyright

This article addresses the uses that record companies have made of two rhetorical tropes. The first is that only one in ten artists succeed. The second is that they are investing in new music. These two notions have been combined to give the impression that record companies are risk taking both economically and aesthetically. They have been employed to justify the companies’ ownership of sound recording copyright and their system of exclusive, long-term recording contracts. More recently, the rhetoric has been employed to combat piracy, extend the term of sound recording copyright and to account for the continuing usefulness of record companies. It is the argument of this article that investment in new music is not necessarily risk taking; rather, it is policies derived from risk taking that provide the financial security of record companies

Vinyl, Vinyl everywhere: The analog record in the digital world

In the United States sales of vinyl records have grown tenfold since 2007. While only 988,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, a total of 9.2 were sold in 2014. This constitutes 6% of all physical album sales. Meanwhile, 1.2 million units of vinyl were sold in the UK in 2014, the highest sales figure since 1996. Sales of record players are also on the rise in each country, as are the numbers of independent record stores. This activity is not wholly retrospective either: new music is being released on vinyl and many of its consumers are young. Why, out of all analogue formats, has the vinyl record shown not only resilience but growth? In this chapter I provide a brief history of the vinyl record, looking at the key attributes that have contributed to its popularity, including its auditory suitability for recorded music and its visual and tactile appeal. I also look at vinyl’s relationship with the formats that have sought to replace or accompany it: the compact disc, the cassette, the download and the digital stream. Finally, I address the nature of the vinyl revival: what has driven it; what is distinct about current modes of vinyl appreciation; can the popularity of vinyl be maintained