Toby Bennett

I’m Toby Bennett.* I live in London, where I teach, research and write on things related to music, media industries, cultural production, creative economy and so on.

I am Lecturer in Media, Culture and Organisation in the School of Media and Communications at the University of Westminster, where I lead the MA Global Media Business (co-delivered with the Communication University of China). I’m also a Production Editor at the excellent Journal of Cultural Economy. I’m interested in how media/cultural industries and ideas are organised; and in how organisation is cultured and mediated. Especially the bit where they cross over. Within this loose prospectus my research focuses on work, policy and knowledge, at different scales – employees, firms, cities, networks and transnational flows. I have a particular interest in music, following an earlier career in music industry rights management. My book on what work inside major record labels was like during the period of digital disruption (roughly 1999-2015), and why that was important for their survival, is out in 2024 with Bloomsbury.

Previously I was a Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at the Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries at City, University of London, where I taught on the MA Culture, Policy and Management. I have been Visiting Lecturer and Course Leader for the MA Music Business Management at University of Westminster and I’ve done various similar things at Queen Mary, University of London, Winchester School of Art and Solent University, Southampton. I have also advised, commented or written reports on various aspects of the music economy for a number of consultancies, trade bodies and journalists, and continue to pursue collaborations with the cultural sector. I might once have called myself a musician but these days I’m just happy if I get to muck about with noise a bit.

This website houses information on my writing, research, teaching, any events I’m involved with, as well as an array of contact strategies.

* N.B. I am obviously not, but nor am I related to, Tony Bennett – either the velvet-voiced crooner or, a little more confusingly, the cultural sociologist – nor am I Toby Bennett the clog-dancer, the skateboarder, or the astrophysicist.