Middlesex University will host a one-day conference, bringing together academics, executives, and practitioners to discuss and scrutinise the classical music industry.

The central practices, theories, and debates that empower and regulate the industry will be explored in the contexts of classical music-making, business, and associated spheres such as politics, education, media, and copyright. The event also celebrates the launch of Routledge’s edited collection of essays on The Classical Music Industry, Middlesex University’s new MA Classical Music Business, and prepares the ground for further publications.

In recent years, discussion of classical music practices has flourished in areas as diverse as law, education, business studies, sociology, philosophy, ICT, and cultural studies. From Dawn Bennett’s landmark study of the classical music profession, through assorted publications on the genre’s economic and social situation, to organisations reflecting on their own identity and impact, the classical music industry is being studied from strikingly new and different angles.

The conference acknowledges that the classical music industry animates deep feelings and it addresses debates that have long encircled the sector but today have a fresh face, as the industry adjusts to the new realities of funding, policy-making, technology, and retail.