British academic David Hesmondhalgh will visit the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. Invited by Professor Laura Jordán, the renowned British sociologist David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) will conduct two activities at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (PUCV) on November 5 and 6.

The first will be the conference entitled The Global Spread of Music Streaming: Capitalism and Colonialism, Technology and Culture, which will take place on Wednesday, November 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Redes Room of the Sausalito Library (El Bosque 1290, Viña del Mar).

On Thursday, November 6th at 10:00 am, Hesmondhalgh will participate as a commentator in the workshop Materialities, practices and industries of popular music, an event that will bring together researchers from different universities to present their recent projects.

About the conference

The conference abstract states the following:

How and in what ways might digital platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, TikTok and Kugou Music be (re)shaping music production, distribution and consumption internationally? Does the global spread of music streaming favour western technologies, business practices and cultural forms at the expense of those associated with the Global South? What might the “platformisation” of music tell us about the relationships between political-economic power and inequality on the one hand, and cultural change on the other? Might music streaming even be a form of “cultural imperialism” “digital colonialism” or “platform imperialism”? This talk, based on the editor’s introduction to a new collection, Music Streaming Around the World (University of California Press, 2025), seeks to address these and other related questions.

Workshop: Materialities, practices and industries of popular music

The workshop will bring together members of the Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures (CMUS) and invited academics, who will present their research in English for discussion by David Hesmondhalgh. This is an open event, so you can register using the form. See the details here. Programa Workshop con David Hesmondhalgh.docx

• 10:00 – 11:45 Eileen Karmy: A Playlist of International Protest Songs. Workers’Songbooks of the early 20th century in the Southern Cone.

  Laura Jordán: Mejor los Beatles, ¡vamos! Sound, Co-presence, and Epistolary Uses of the Cassette under Dictatorship.

  Arturo Figueroa-Bustos: Discourses and socio-political involvement of Chilean musicians in music press: the case of indie composers.

  11:45-12:00 Coffee break

  12:00 – 13:30

  Daniel Party: Gender Representation on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs Chart (1987-2024).

  Macarena Lavín: Singing for the algorithm: A look at the platformization process of the Chilean music industry”

About David Hesmondhalgh

David Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media, Music and Culture in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. He is the author of The Cultural Industries (the 5th edition of which will be published in January 2026) and Why Music Matters (2013), and co-author of Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (2010), Culture, Economy and Politics: Cultural Policy Under New Labour (2015), and a book-length report for the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office on Music Creators’ Earnings in the Digital Era (2021).

From 2021-26, he is Principal Investigator on a five-year research project, funded by a European Research Council Advanced Research Grant, on Music Culture in the Age of Streaming.

Conferencia: The Global Spread of Music Streaming: Capitalism and Colonialism, Technology and Culture”

November, 5th a las 6:30 pm

Sala Redes de la Biblioteca Sausalito (El Bosque 1290, Viña del Mar).

Workshop: Materialidades, prácticas e industrias de la música popular

Thursday, November 6th, 10 am

Sala Postítulo SAUMUS 3-5, Instituto de Música, El Bosque 1290, Viña del Mar.