Erik Hitters is Associate Professor at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication of Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has co-founded and is managing director of ERMeCC, the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture. He lectures for the MA programme in Media & Creative Industries and IBCoM, the International Bachelor in Communication and Media. Erik’s research interests lie in the broad field of transformations in the media and creative industries. He leads the Smart Culture Strategic Research Project “Staging popular music: sustainable live music ecologies for artists, music venues and cities (POPLIVE)”, jointly funded by NWO and SIA. His work on popular music has resulted in various conference papers and publications. In 2015, he co-founded and is board member of the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA).