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The right of Leslie M. Meier to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2017 by Polity Press

Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

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Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9221-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9222-7(pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Meier, Leslie M., author.

Title: Popular music as promotion : music and branding in the digital age / Leslie M. Meier.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects: LCSH: Music trade. | Sound recordings–Marketing. | Music in advertising. | Branding (Marketing)

Classification: LCC ML3790 .M42 2016 (print) | LCC ML3790 (ebook) | DDC 781.64068/8–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023774

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Acknowledgements

I am tremendously thankful to all the people who have supported me in the development of this book and the PhD thesis from which it evolved. Jonathan Burston and Alison Hearn, my supervisors at the University of Western Ontario, provided invaluable insight, encouragement and support. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Matt Stahl, Jonathan Sterne and Norma Coates for their incisive input on the thesis, and to David Hesmondhalgh and Bethany Klein for the careful and thoughtful feedback they have provided as I have worked to refine my ideas in this book. I would like to thank Kate Oakley, Ted Magder, Vincent Manzerolle, Devon Powers, Jay Hodgson and my fellow PhD students at the University of Western Ontario. Thanks also to Andrea Drugan, Elen Griffiths, Ellen MacDonald-Kramer and India Darsley at Polity, copyeditor Jane Fricker and the two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments on the manuscript.

I am truly grateful for the generous contributions of my interviewees, without whom this research would not have been possible. The insider view on the music industries, advertising and brands during an intense period of change provided me with a one-of-a-kind education.

Thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for its generous support of this research and to the Canada-US Fulbright Program, which sponsored my visiting researcher post at New York University's Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. These funders enabled me to conduct indispensable interviews in New York City and Los Angeles in addition to those undertaken in Toronto.

I am also so very grateful to my family and closest friends. Thanks to my parents, Don and Judy Meier, my brother and sister-in-law, Ian and Karissa Meier, my grandmothers, Nicki Soiseth and Kay Meier, David and Carol Bonli, Melanie Preston and Jérôme Bertrand, and most of all, Liv Bonli.