Copenhagen Business School

Ed Banger and the changing music business

The music market has drastically changed the last decade and the industry has expressed its concern towards the future. But behind the threat of illegal sharing lies an opportunity in online marketing. Our research question wants to take a more positive look on the new market and see how the opportunities can be exploited (at its best) instead of focusing on the negative effects.

The French electronic music scene�s glory days started out in the mid 90s with artists like Laurent Garniere, Cassius and Daft Punk. The genre dubbed �French Touch� more or less died out in the middle of the following decade as multiple producers copied it and the original artists either disappeared from the scene or went into more popular music genres. Today we have a resurrection of French electronic music that again is conquering the international music market. The general of this conquest is Pedro �Busy P� Winter and his army of artists making up Ed Banger Records. Respected in the underground � supported by hipster magazine Vice � Ed Banger and particularly Justice, their most popular artist at the moment, are now hitting it off in the mainstream � winning Best Video at the 2007 MTV Europe Music Award and currently in the top 10 single and album list of electronic music on iTunes.

How can a small independent label implement itself on this challenging market that has been doomed by the record companies the last 5 years? Is it a magic universal recipe to modern music marketing or is it a niche case or trend that got lucky and will soon fade away as the �French Touch� in the late 90s?