Kenny Barr is a Research Associate at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR) currently working on a three-year ESRC-funded project: Public Service Media and the Digital Challenge: Purpose Value and Funding. This multi-method empirical study examines the changing role of PSM in the context of a rapidly evolving media ecology and interrogates ways in which value is conceived and delivered by stakeholders. At a pivotal moment in determining the future role of UK PSM and how it is to be funded in the face of unprecedented competitive and political challenges. 

Working as a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, Kenny contributed to research commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) investigating aspects of Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era. This work resulted in the publication of two reports published by the IPO on creators’ earnings from music streaming and buyout contracts in the AV sector.

Kenny has also been involved at the CREATe research centre throughout its 10-year history as a doctoral and postdoctoral researcher. Most recently, his research was part of the PEC ‘Intellectual Property, Business Models, Access to Finance and Content Regulation’ work-strand based at CREATe. Additionally, he was also a Co-investigator on 'The Law and Economics of e-lending in Europe', a multi method study examining how different markets in e-lending function (education books, trade books), adopting concepts and principles developed by EU and national competition authorities. This study was funded by Knowledge Rights 21/Arcadia (charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin).

Between 2017 and 2020, Kenny was a postdoctoral Research Associate on a 3-year ESPRC-funded project at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR), University of Glasgow. Television Production in Transition, interrogated the effects of growing power of transnational media companies in the context of UK television production sector. In 2016 he completed his PhD examining Music Copyright in the Digital Age at Glasgow. This doctoral research across Music and Law was funded by the prestigious interdisciplinary Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Scholarship.

These doctoral and postdoctoral research experiences at Glasgow are characterised by a significant degree of cross-college and inter-school engagement and collaboration. This was further enhanced as part of the ‘Creative Economies & Cultural Transformation’ theme at the new Advanced Research Centre (ARC) facility which opened in 2022. In collaboration with colleagues from a range of disciplinary backgrounds including, Cultural Policy, Competition Law, and IP Law, Kenny has been active in drafting submissions of evidence and responses to Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) inquiries into: The Future of Public Service Broadcasting, The Economics of Music Streaming and, most recently, The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Music and Streaming Market Study Statement of Scope.

Kenny has taught and supervised on PGT programmes in: Creative Industries and Cultural Policy, Media Management, and Popular Music Studies. In addition to this he was a member of the SCCA Athena Swan Committee, latterly the SCCA EDI Committee, and he is also a member of the Copyright Evidence Wiki editorial board. Prior to embarking on these academic undertakings, Kenny worked in the live music sector as a tour manager in the UK and Europe.

My research interests are principally located in the cultural industries, with a particular focus on the music industries and television production sectors in the digital era. Much of my work focuses on better understanding the challenges and opportunities presented by the digitalisation of production, dissemination and consumption of music and TV content.  The extent to which ownership and control of copyright shapes commercial and creative decision-making at all levels of these industries is a central thread that runs through my research. Of particular interest are the activities of primary creators and micro-enterprises operating on the margins industries that are increasingly dominated by integrated, transnational corporate rightsholders and digital platforms.

List by: Type | Date

• The Law and Economics of e-lending in Europe

  Funding body: Knowledge Rights 21/Arcadia (charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin) 

  M. Kretschmer (PI), K. Barr, M. Eben (Co-Is)

  Researcher: M. Frigeri

  Dates: September 2022-January 2025

  Amount awarded: €80,000

  The project sought to better understand how different markets in e-lending function (education books, trade books), adopting concepts and principles developed by EU and national competition authorities. In addition to generating policy-relevant findings, addressing these questions permitted reflections on the wider societal goals e-lending, copyright and competition law are intended to support.

• University of Glasgow Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith PhD Scholarship 2011-2015: ‘Music Copyright in the Digital Age’

Selected conference papers

‘Is Forever Longer Than Always?’ Life of Copyright Contracts in the UK Recording Industry’, MU History Conference, Glasgow, UK, 14th-15th January 2016

‘Going for a Song: Theory and Practice of Contracts in Music Publishing’ (co-authored with Professor Ruth Towse) SERCI Conference, Glasgow, UK, 2nd-4th September 2015

‘The Gift that Keeps Giving’: Copyright and Gift in the Digital Music Economy, IASPM 18th Biennial Conference, Campinas: Brazil, 29th June-3rd July 2015

‘Take it or leave it!’: Copyright, Creators and Commercial Decision-Making, IASPM Benelux 30th Anniversary Conference: Rotterdam, Netherlands, 6th-7th November 2014

Musicians and Copyright: A Digital Crisis?, IASPM 17th Biennial Conference: Gijon, Spain, 24th-28th June 2013

‘Just Got Paid’: Copyright’s Division of Musical Labour in the Digital Age, IASPM Canada Conference: Hamilton, Canada, 23rd-26th May 2013

Other publications

Barr, K. (2015) ‘PRS for Music Festival and Concert Tariff Review’, livemusicexchange.org, available at: http://livemusicexchange.org/blog/prsfor-music-festival-and-concert-tariff-review-kenny-barr/

Contributing Author
Kretschmer, M. and Singh, S. (eds.) (2014) Creative Industries Hopes and Fears / September 2014, CREATe

copyrightuser.org (2017) ‘Going for a Song’, available at: http://copyrightuser.org/going-for-a-song/