Where the Magic People Gathered
Measuring the impact of private member clubs on the music industry
Original research published in the
International Journal of Music Business Research
In 2018-2019, we measured the impact of member clubs on the global music industry.
London’s Soho House was used as our primary case study.
In recent years, a new format of private member club has become increasingly popular. These clubs are aimed at a crowd which identifies with entrepreneurialism, independence, and creativity.
Soho House, one such club, is situated at the heart of the contemporary music economy. It has successfully inscribed itself as a primary meeting point, where recording artists, managers, label owners and major record label employees frequently socialise with other members of the creative industries.
Historically, it builds on the cultural weight of London’s infamous Soho, and its club culture that flourished in the 1980s.
Through interviews with music industry professionals, including recording artists, managers, and label owners, contributors shared crucial details about their lifestyles, their professional lives, and the role these clubs play for them in supporting their place in the music economy.
The research also included accounts from people on the fringes of the music economy, including sonic advertising, the film & television industries, and those who’ve known London’s intimate nightlife for decades.
Private clubs are home to the new, global, and networked environment of the music economy.
Soho House inscribed itself into a global vision as the home of the stereotypical, new creative: one that is increasingly self-mediating and self-policing; one defined by its distinct habitus, common codes, a rejection of white-collar corporatism, and an affinity for authenticity, aesthetics, and urban pas- toralism
These new spaces allow for increased networking and collaboration, and are instrumental to creative lives across Los Angeles, London, New York, and everywhere else.
The Private Member Club (PMC) also reveals a stark contrast in music industry operations before and after the digital revolution. Inter-sector relationships seem all the more valued, and the PMC has positioned itself as a bridge between industry subsectors, promoting crucial cross-collaboration and joint ventures.
Private clubs also have their limitations.
“[Clubs] have always sat above, slightly removed, from the local culture. They always seem to take from the local minorities without giving back.”
— Respondent 7
While the PMC model continues to be beneficial for many of its members, its exclusivity may exacerbate existing frictions within the industry. Aspiring musicians, producers and intermediaries from disadvantaged backgrounds are de facto blocked from an important and consequential network. Local artistic communities are increasingly distanced from global circuits. A digitally native populace shows signs of gravitation toward individualism and self-mediation. And spaces that permit the blurring of personal and professional lives further the normalization of precarious Creative Industries labour conditions, and its concomitant anxieties.
The role of Private Clubs like Soho House is unquestionably important in our current ecosystem. Especially in a time where offices are closed, and music has had to turn away from its Live sector to generate further income, these alternative spaces have become a heavyweight in support of its creative community…
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