Contracts, Patronage and Mediation (The Articulation of Global and Local in the South African Recording Industry)

Contracts, Patronage and Mediation studies the long-term developments in the South African recording industry. It adds to the existing literature an understanding of the prevalence of informal negotiations over rights, rewards and power in the recording industry. The book is original in that it uses several disciplines' approaches and methods. It combines a wide array of different industry participants' -often vividly expressed- views and experiences with statistical information and the existing literature's findings. The book argues that alongside the global contract model, in South Africa there exists another mode of organizing recording industry relationships, which is based on the patronage model. Furthermore, the book states that such features are probably not unique to South Africa, but can also be found in recording industries elsewhere, even though they have not previously been thoroughly investigated.