“Even Calin doesn’t easily make it onto foreign playlists. There are alternatives to Spotify,” says CIRG research group member Miloš Hroch
31. 8. 2025 online platforms music industry
Success on Spotify is the dream of many creators. In an interview for Refresher magazine, Miloš Hroch from the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, points out that much depends on the country you come from. Even artists like Calin or Viktor Sheen, with millions of listens in the Czech Republic, do not automatically reach listeners abroad.
“For years, Spotify proclaimed that anyone could rise from a child’s bedroom straight to the top of global charts thanks to the platform. But that’s not how it works. When a Czech singer or band tries to get onto playlists beyond national borders, it’s a very arduous journey,” says Miloš Hroch, drawing on the conclusions of the study Playlisting the Periphery: Platform Intermediaries and East-Central European Music Visibility in Spotify’s Geography, which he published together with Petr Szczepanik in the journal New Media & Society. You can read the interview with Miloš Hroch here.
Cirg - about
CIRG – the Cultural Industries Research Group focuses on research into cultural and media industries, particularly on current issues, challenges, and conflicts arising from tensions between intellectual property law, the business models of cultural industries, the digitalization and platformization of cultural sectors, and changing consumer habits. The group’s name is an acronym of its English title, Cultural Industries Research Group. CIRG is an informal association of experts from media studies, intellectual property law, media law, media ethics, cultural economics and cultural management, sociology of culture, and data analysis. The group operates on the basis of project-based funding through applied research projects (TAČR, NAKI, EEA and Norway Grants, OP JAK Intersectoral Cooperation), basic research projects (GAČR, ZIF Bielefeld, OP VVV Excellent Research, DFG), as well as contract research (State Cinematography Fund, Association of Audiovisual Producers).
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Screen Industries in Central and Eastern Europe Research Group
SIRG
Charles University
Department of Film Studies
Lab head: Petr Szczepanik
sirg@ff.cuni.cz
PhD
We offer the opportunity to pursue doctoral study focused on developing and carrying out your own research projects in the field of cultural and media industries. The programme can be undertaken at Palacký University Olomouc, Charles University, or the Prague University of Economics and Business under the supervision of leading experts in media studies, cultural economics, digital ethics, and copyright law.
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