The Oxford Handbook of music and advertising is an essential guide to the crucial role that music plays in the audio or audiovisual advertising message, from the perspectives of its creation, interpretation, and reception. The book's unique three-part organization reflects this life cycle of an advertisement, from industry inception to mass-mediated text to consumer behavior. Experts well-versed in the practice, analysis, and empirical studies of the commercial message have contributed to the collection's forty-two chapters, which collectively represent the most ambitious and comprehensive attempt to date to address the important intersections of music and advertising.
Though the Handbook chapters are self-contained, they share borders with other contributions, both within a section and across the major sections of the book. As a result, readers an either study one topic of particular interest or read through to gain an understanding of the broader issues at stake. For the book's introduction, each editor has provided an overview of the unifying themes for the section over which they were responsible, with brief summaries of individual contributions at the beginnings of the sections. The lists of recommended readings at the ends of chapters are intended to assist readers in finding further literature about topics covered. An overview of industry practices by a music insider is provided in the appendix, giving additional context for the three sections of the book.