Toby Bennett
@tgpb.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture & Organisation at University of Westminster
Wrote a book on the mundane work that makes Big Music work; do editorial bits at Journal of Cultural Economy; some other stuff...
https://tgpbennett.wordpress.com
Wrote a book on the mundane work that makes Big Music work; do editorial bits at Journal of Cultural Economy; some other stuff...
https://tgpbennett.wordpress.com
Spotify thinks I'm 48 years old, which I obviously felt outraged by - until I remembered how many times this year I got "Bad Bunny" mixed up with this guy:
December 3, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Spotify thinks I'm 48 years old, which I obviously felt outraged by - until I remembered how many times this year I got "Bad Bunny" mixed up with this guy:
Following this nice pic of 70s EMI, two images:
1) postwar Gramophone production line (from Miriam Glucksman's "Women Assemble")
2) Gramophone-themed seating in the current redeveloped site
& two sections from my book:
3) TGWU women's dispute over the Sex Pistols
4) West London gentrification
1) postwar Gramophone production line (from Miriam Glucksman's "Women Assemble")
2) Gramophone-themed seating in the current redeveloped site
& two sections from my book:
3) TGWU women's dispute over the Sex Pistols
4) West London gentrification
December 1, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Following this nice pic of 70s EMI, two images:
1) postwar Gramophone production line (from Miriam Glucksman's "Women Assemble")
2) Gramophone-themed seating in the current redeveloped site
& two sections from my book:
3) TGWU women's dispute over the Sex Pistols
4) West London gentrification
1) postwar Gramophone production line (from Miriam Glucksman's "Women Assemble")
2) Gramophone-themed seating in the current redeveloped site
& two sections from my book:
3) TGWU women's dispute over the Sex Pistols
4) West London gentrification
Two new arrivals: @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social on the effect of conglomeration on US publishing and Timothy Kuhn on the corporation, desire and communicative capitalism. Only flicked through so far but I wish I'd come across them before finishing my own take on passion and communication in "Big Music".
November 30, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Two new arrivals: @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social on the effect of conglomeration on US publishing and Timothy Kuhn on the corporation, desire and communicative capitalism. Only flicked through so far but I wish I'd come across them before finishing my own take on passion and communication in "Big Music".
The Paul Baran one?
Not sure if this link works but the pdf is easily googlable. share.google/S6FmMZt6MfdW...
Not sure if this link works but the pdf is easily googlable. share.google/S6FmMZt6MfdW...
November 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
The Paul Baran one?
Not sure if this link works but the pdf is easily googlable. share.google/S6FmMZt6MfdW...
Not sure if this link works but the pdf is easily googlable. share.google/S6FmMZt6MfdW...
There's an acronym I didn't need to know existed.
www.ft.com/content/81fc...
www.ft.com/content/81fc...
November 26, 2025 at 5:17 PM
There's an acronym I didn't need to know existed.
www.ft.com/content/81fc...
www.ft.com/content/81fc...
Going straight into my next job application.
November 24, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Going straight into my next job application.
Absolutely on board with this sign in a Beijing public park.
November 19, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Absolutely on board with this sign in a Beijing public park.
I love giving talks in China.
"Please come and speak to our MBA students"
"Sure!"
The MBA students:
"Please come and speak to our MBA students"
"Sure!"
The MBA students:
November 15, 2025 at 11:17 AM
I love giving talks in China.
"Please come and speak to our MBA students"
"Sure!"
The MBA students:
"Please come and speak to our MBA students"
"Sure!"
The MBA students:
At first I was confused by the "kitchen" reference but then I realised it's a space of both production and consumption, where technical skill meets amateur expertise, and taste blends with measurement - indeed it's where the blender is kept - and where all sorts of new recipes are tested out...
October 28, 2025 at 4:10 PM
At first I was confused by the "kitchen" reference but then I realised it's a space of both production and consumption, where technical skill meets amateur expertise, and taste blends with measurement - indeed it's where the blender is kept - and where all sorts of new recipes are tested out...
This article is great! It offers a contribution to conceptualisations of "real abstraction" by asking how music helps us come to *feel* exchange value.
MORE IMPORTANTLY it genuinely provides an answer to this age-old question:
MORE IMPORTANTLY it genuinely provides an answer to this age-old question:
September 27, 2025 at 12:06 AM
This article is great! It offers a contribution to conceptualisations of "real abstraction" by asking how music helps us come to *feel* exchange value.
MORE IMPORTANTLY it genuinely provides an answer to this age-old question:
MORE IMPORTANTLY it genuinely provides an answer to this age-old question:
"The trouble with having a skip outside your house", they said, "is that people treat it like a public bin".
And while this is true, and it's pretty disgusting, it also means you sometimes end up with a big carrier bag full of ragga and dancehall cassettes. Reasonable trade-off in my eyes.
And while this is true, and it's pretty disgusting, it also means you sometimes end up with a big carrier bag full of ragga and dancehall cassettes. Reasonable trade-off in my eyes.
August 31, 2025 at 1:59 PM
"The trouble with having a skip outside your house", they said, "is that people treat it like a public bin".
And while this is true, and it's pretty disgusting, it also means you sometimes end up with a big carrier bag full of ragga and dancehall cassettes. Reasonable trade-off in my eyes.
And while this is true, and it's pretty disgusting, it also means you sometimes end up with a big carrier bag full of ragga and dancehall cassettes. Reasonable trade-off in my eyes.
This is maddening of course. But it's not unique to the AI moment - it aligns with the longer cultural industries trajectory I set out in my book (re: music).
It's why I think we need more attention on systems and shouldn't conflate the exploitation of WORKS with the exploitation of WORK.
It's why I think we need more attention on systems and shouldn't conflate the exploitation of WORKS with the exploitation of WORK.
August 17, 2025 at 4:34 PM
This is maddening of course. But it's not unique to the AI moment - it aligns with the longer cultural industries trajectory I set out in my book (re: music).
It's why I think we need more attention on systems and shouldn't conflate the exploitation of WORKS with the exploitation of WORK.
It's why I think we need more attention on systems and shouldn't conflate the exploitation of WORKS with the exploitation of WORK.
"a Weberian vision of bureaucratic rationality gone mad" - no "message" or "public", or "relation" even - just "contingency planning, anticipatory strategies, double-fitted logistics" - "a walking case-book in the technicisation of culture".
...but what do you REALLY think, Stu?
...but what do you REALLY think, Stu?
August 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
"a Weberian vision of bureaucratic rationality gone mad" - no "message" or "public", or "relation" even - just "contingency planning, anticipatory strategies, double-fitted logistics" - "a walking case-book in the technicisation of culture".
...but what do you REALLY think, Stu?
...but what do you REALLY think, Stu?
"Personally, I am a paper clip man."
Stuart Hall reviews the "Manual of Public Relations" in 1969.
Stuart Hall reviews the "Manual of Public Relations" in 1969.
August 16, 2025 at 8:29 PM
"Personally, I am a paper clip man."
Stuart Hall reviews the "Manual of Public Relations" in 1969.
Stuart Hall reviews the "Manual of Public Relations" in 1969.
Received my opt-in email. My untypeset manuscript's mine to play with. Do I care if it's ingested for AI training? No. Might do it myself.
The principle I object to is handing publishers more rights than they already have & giving eg OpenAI permission to repurpose this material & not everyone else.
The principle I object to is handing publishers more rights than they already have & giving eg OpenAI permission to repurpose this material & not everyone else.
August 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Received my opt-in email. My untypeset manuscript's mine to play with. Do I care if it's ingested for AI training? No. Might do it myself.
The principle I object to is handing publishers more rights than they already have & giving eg OpenAI permission to repurpose this material & not everyone else.
The principle I object to is handing publishers more rights than they already have & giving eg OpenAI permission to repurpose this material & not everyone else.
Good thread for making me feel young. And obviously I already had a playlist for this.
July 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Good thread for making me feel young. And obviously I already had a playlist for this.
It's more niche and I felt anxious about having too much "memoir" in there - but still, more or less starts in 1999, moves through white collar routine, and ends with a weird sense of renewed escape and agency. I'm really looking forward to Fake Work!
tgpbennett.wordpress.com/corporate-li...
tgpbennett.wordpress.com/corporate-li...
July 14, 2025 at 10:38 PM
It's more niche and I felt anxious about having too much "memoir" in there - but still, more or less starts in 1999, moves through white collar routine, and ends with a weird sense of renewed escape and agency. I'm really looking forward to Fake Work!
tgpbennett.wordpress.com/corporate-li...
tgpbennett.wordpress.com/corporate-li...
The voice of the video game industry discussing the significance of retro gaming while accompanied by this display seems like something of a faux pas to me. I consider myself quite liberal minded in the main but I'm sorry, the BBC have crossed a line this time.
July 14, 2025 at 8:52 PM
The voice of the video game industry discussing the significance of retro gaming while accompanied by this display seems like something of a faux pas to me. I consider myself quite liberal minded in the main but I'm sorry, the BBC have crossed a line this time.
If people ask me what my book is about, I can now identify it as an attempt to contribute to the project of documenting post-liberal arts white collar work in the service of a vernacular Marxism.
July 14, 2025 at 8:22 PM
If people ask me what my book is about, I can now identify it as an attempt to contribute to the project of documenting post-liberal arts white collar work in the service of a vernacular Marxism.
Oh no someone's accidentally bought one of my tracks. This has never happened before! When I set it up I tried to make it so that it wasn't possible to give me money but Bandcamp wouldn't allow it so I had to go with "name your price". The going rate, it turns out, is 25p.
July 7, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Oh no someone's accidentally bought one of my tracks. This has never happened before! When I set it up I tried to make it so that it wasn't possible to give me money but Bandcamp wouldn't allow it so I had to go with "name your price". The going rate, it turns out, is 25p.
...and for more on music industry how-to guides and executives' reading habits, you need chapter nine of this one:
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/corporate...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/corporate...
July 7, 2025 at 7:43 AM
...and for more on music industry how-to guides and executives' reading habits, you need chapter nine of this one:
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/corporate...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/corporate...
Me, @allanwatson1.bsky.social and @andrewleyshon.bsky.social spotted in Foyles - huddling together in solidarity. The critical filling in a chunky sandwich of handbooks and how-to manuals...
July 7, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Me, @allanwatson1.bsky.social and @andrewleyshon.bsky.social spotted in Foyles - huddling together in solidarity. The critical filling in a chunky sandwich of handbooks and how-to manuals...
Emília Barna's new book on music-making in Hungary is very good and gave me many thoughts.
If you, too, want to understand how cultural production is shaped by world systems and domestic labour, there's an open access link here:
library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...
If you, too, want to understand how cultural production is shaped by world systems and domestic labour, there's an open access link here:
library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...
June 23, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Emília Barna's new book on music-making in Hungary is very good and gave me many thoughts.
If you, too, want to understand how cultural production is shaped by world systems and domestic labour, there's an open access link here:
library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...
If you, too, want to understand how cultural production is shaped by world systems and domestic labour, there's an open access link here:
library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...