Music Industries, Platform Economy and Social Entrepreneurship

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework employed in this book. I first lay out the macro-skeleton of the digital creative industry and platform economy discourses to analyse the unique features of the new economy. To be specific, I address the issue of the technology shift, demographic shift of fans and users, and the changes of consumption modes. This chapter follows a problem-and-tension-driven logic in order to better guide the analysis, reviewing literature from the supply side, namely the ‘production-of-culture’ perspective and the ‘social network market’ model from the demand side developed by QUT scholars. This demand–supply pair is then investigated in the platform ecosystem to look for possible models for further development of the music industry informed by social entrepreneurship theories.