Pop music production and regulation online in selected African countries and Brazil

Over the last quarter of a century, the sources of the global recorded music industry’s revenues have changed fundamentally, from 100 per cent physical sources (mostly compact discs [CDs]) in 1999 to diversified sources between 2010 and 2015, to mostly intangible sources (mostly streaming) thereafter. However, such global statistics tell us little about developments on the ground in countries with very different socio-economic and cultural circumstances. This special issue examines, from a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective, how technology, particularly the internet, cultural practices and law have interacted in the field of popular music in three African countries (Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa) and Brazil. The socio-economic and legal situations in these countries have been studied far less than those in the Global North. In addition, they are of great importance from an overall perspective because of their population and market size, as well as their ‘cultural influences’ on the regional and even global music scene – suffice it to mention Afrobeats, Bossa Nova and Amapiano. Remarkably, the studies featured in this special issue reveal more similarities than differences.