David Hesmondhalgh is a Professor of Media, Music and Culture at the University of Leeds, where he has been based since 2007. From 2010 to 2013, he served as Head of the Institute of Communications Studies (now the School of Media and Communication).
Professor Hesmondhalgh is an internationally recognised scholar of media, culture, and the creative industries. He is the author and editor of numerous books and journal articles on media industries, cultural production, music, and social theory. His most influential publications include The Cultural Industries (Sage), a landmark and widely cited analysis of television, film, music, publishing, and digital platforms. First published in 2002 and now in its fifth edition (2026), the book has been substantially revised over time and translated into multiple languages, including Chinese, Russian, and Italian.
His other major monographs include Why Music Matters (2013), an examination of the social and collective value of music and the conditions that enable or constrain its positive effects, translated into Spanish and Russian; and Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (co-authored with Sarah Baker), a foundational study of labour, employment, and inequality in the cultural industries. He has also co-authored Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour (2015), a critical analysis of cultural policy under the UK Labour governments between 1997 and 2010.
In addition to his authored books, Professor Hesmondhalgh has edited influential collections including The Media and Social Theory (with Jason Toynbee) and Music Streaming Around the World (2025), and has edited a special issue of Popular Communication on race, ethnicity, and cultural production. In 2021, he co-authored a book-length report on musicians’ earnings for the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office.
He is currently Principal Investigator on a five-year research project, Music Culture in the Age of Streaming, funded by a European Research Council Advanced Research Grant (2021–2026). The project examines the cultural, economic, and political consequences of music streaming across global contexts, including detailed analysis of China and multiple international case studies. Publications from the project include journal articles and edited volumes, with further monographs currently in development.
Professor Hesmondhalgh’s research spans media and cultural industries, digital platforms, music and society, media work and labour, cultural policy, and social theory, with particular attention to questions of inequality, justice, and power. He has also published numerous chapters in edited collections and remains a leading figure in international debates on media, culture, and the creative economy.
