Drawing on a deep and long-term first-hand engagement with major labels in the early years of the 21st century, this book sheds novel light 'behind the scenes', at a time of drastic and far-reaching transformation. Refreshingly, it centres not on artists and the most powerful decision-makers but on everyday experiences of work and sense-making among back-office corporate employees. Doing so reveals the internal activities and conflicts that, while hidden from immediate public view, enable processes of change: from paperwork, data systems, managerial pressures and redundancies to graduate training schemes, departmental politics and shared playlists. Following some of these more mundane features provides a new route into understanding the broader cultures and infrastructures of the global recording industry. This oft-forgotten office work tells a different story of contemporary digital music - one more sensitive to the complex intersections of bureaucracy and enterprise, passion and critique, knowledge and experience, that texture the conduct of work and organizational life.

Encourages critical reflection on the meaningful maintenance of music, among engaged practitioners working in the industry and students wishing to enter it

List of AcronymsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1: Outside In1. Working for the Man?2. Access All Areas3. Big MusicPart 2: Inside Out4. Re-evaluation5. Passion Work6. Standardisation7. Systems Work8. Professionalisation9. Knowledge WorkConclusion: Everyone's a CriticAppendicesNotesBibliographyIndex