Popular music is with us everywhere. Beyond the walls of concert halls we now listen to music in our homes and as a sonic backdrop in cars, airplanes, restaurants and shopping malls. The Global Jukebox is the first comprehensive study of the international industry which produces, markets and distributes popular music.

Now in the communications age the music industry is undergoing great change: facing up to the concentration of ownership and market share in the hands of the big six' multinational companies, and constantly adopting technological innovations which transform the ways music is produced and consumed. Author Robert Burnett examines how the industry is producing global stars and products for an ever-growing international audience, closely examines the role of the largest and single most important producer and consumer for commercial music, the United States.