How Songs Make Money is a podcast series about music rights and the income streams associated with songwriting and composition, hosted by Dr Ellis Jones, Lecturer in Music and Management at the University of Leeds.

This week's episode offers an interview with Christopher Fox, a composer of new music, as well as a music scholar and writer. Christopher’s work has been performed and broadcast world-wide and has featured in many leading new music festivals, from the Amsterdam PROMS to the BBC Proms and from St Petersburg to Sydney. His work has been informed by close collaborations with a number of performers, including the soprano Elizabeth Hilliard, the pianist John Snijders, and the Apartment House and EXAUDI ensembles. His work is also the subject of the 2016 edited collection, published by Routledge, titled Perspectives on the Music of Christopher Fox: Straight Lines in Broken Times.

His writings on new music have also been published widely, in the journals Contact, Contemporary Music Review, Musical Times, TEMPO (which he has edited since 2015) and The Guardian. He has also held academic posts including Professor in Composition, Professor of Music at Brunel University London, and he is also Honorary Professor at the University of York.

In our conversation me and Christopher covered a wide range of topics including the position of composition within University music departments, the possibility of earning a living from new music composition, how new works are commissioned, and copyright registration as it relates to works that are improvised, unfixed, or otherwise difficult to classify.

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References and further reading

Doss, Rose (ed.) 2016. Perspectives on the Music of Christopher Fox: Straight Lines in Broken Times. Routledge.

Audio excerpts

Excerpt from ‘Free Diver’ (Fox). Performed by Kathryn Williams. Available on the album Dissenting Voices. ℗ 2025 Hat Hut Records. © 2024 Christopher Fox. Used for purposes of criticism and review under the ‘fair dealing’ exception of UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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All views expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers, and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Leeds, the School of Music, or any other organisation. Nothing in this podcast should be interpreted as business or legal advice.

How Songs Make Money is created and assembled by Ellis Jones, with contributions from students on the University of Leeds, Music Management MA course. This series is edited by Nikolai Klimanski. Our theme music is also written and produced by Nik Klimanski, and is included with permission. This series of How Songs Make Money is supported by ‘Research Boost’ funding from the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, and enabled by Digital Education Service’s Podcasting Pilot. Special thanks to Sam Wyman for their support, as well as to Angela Hulme, Mia Windsor, Liev Cherry, and Michelle Schneider.