ABSTRACT

The twenty-first century has witnessed an expansion of digital platforms, distribution methods and software and programming tools for creative work. Most prominent are websites and mobile apps as platforms for expression, and the growing dominance of online streaming and retailing. However the speed and diversity of these changes has both positive and negative implications for musicians, visual artists, poets, filmmakers and more. These implications impact upon the higher music education sector, reverberating around academia, affecting the form and modality of scholarly work by staff and students and posing challenges for the contemporary curriculum in the creative arts. This chapter discusses these issues and examines the emerging forms of collaboration and authorship, and the opportunities and challenges of new media and modes of access. And through these insights, we will also uncover how higher education institutions might evolve to rethink learning and teaching practices in accordance with these changes.