Digital Music Distribution Research Articles

Displacement paradigm towards digital music distribution in the recording industry

Digital music streaming and downloading platforms supervene the stymied superfluity of physical music distribution in the recording industry. The significant transition seems to provide quasi-real-time increased music consumption. The purpose of the study is to identify the challenges associated with the paradigm shift to the digital trajectory of music regarding global market demand and to establish the extent to which digital diffusion innovations influence digital music distribution and consumption in the recording industry. The exploratory research study employed univariate and multivariate statistical analysis to analyse the data collected from 217 musicians. The study found that the customer base of physical retail stores is dwindling due to the increasing number of independent artists and technologically compatible media devices that encourage music streaming and downloads. The practical implications ensue the amplitude of music downloads that is proffered by modular technological developments, such as the buttress of smartphones while it predicates the perspicacity of innovative digital technologies to create independent shrewd music entrepreneurs.

블록체인 기술을 활용한 저작권계약 관리 방안에 관한 연구 : 음악저작권 중심으로 블록체인 기반 저작권 계약

In this study, the word "the era of the fourth industrial revolution such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain" is emerging as a hot topic. The world is changing its content service platform throughout the industry due to the emergence of smart devices, the development of new devices, and the rapid development of major technologies following changes in the digital environment amid rapid paradigm change. As large companies such as Disney, led by Netflix in the U.S., entered the platform business, the future era eventually became an era where only companies that own both content and platform survive. Given that Netflix"s 2020 sales have achieved 415.5 billion won due to restrictions on people"s activities in the fendemic situation caused by COVID-19, it can be seen that the expansion of content consumption through the platform is rapidly expanding. Distribution of digital content takes place through contracts between copyright holders, performers, agencies, distributors, and services. Users of music are purchasing music using the services of distribution service providers, and the distribution of music revenue generated is distributed to agencies such as copyright holders, performers, and record producers through music distributors and copyright trust organizations. However, as problems such as copyright contracts and omission and delay of settlement of copyright fees arise in the process of digital music distribution contracts, the blockchain-based digital music distribution contract system is suggested as an alternative.

Music and the Cybernetic Mundane

Few intellectual movements have been as influential as cybernetics was in the 1950s and ’60s. Fewer still have seen their stock fall so precipitously in the years since. Despite the growing body of literature that has reassessed this postwar “cybernetics moment” (Hayles, Kline, Pickering, Medina, et al.), its far-reaching impact remains curiously underappreciated, especially as regards music. This article seeks to redress this neglect, by focusing not on works and practices that spectacularize cybernetics (the “cybernetic sublime”), but instead on those activities, discourses, and projects that so thoroughly internalized and normalized the cybernetic ethos that it eludes notice (the “cybernetic mundane”). A first case study considers the little-known role played by information theory and cybernetics in the design of the RCA Synthesizer, one of the first instruments of its ilk to be developed. Among other things, I contend that cybernetic thinking pervaded the instrument’s conception to such an extent that it paradoxically contributed to the subsequent erasure of its influence from accounts of the instrument’s development and subsequent implementation as part of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. The second case concerns more recent applications of cybernetic ideals to digital music distribution, exemplified by the platform Spotify, whose routinization of these ideals has ensured not just their persistence, but their persistent misrecognition.

Cultural Divergence in popular music: the increasing diversity of music consumption on Spotify across countries

The digitization of music has changed how we consume, produce, and distribute music. In this paper, we explore the effects of digitization and streaming on the globalization of popular music. While some argue that digitization has led to more diverse cultural markets, others consider that the increasing accessibility to international music would result in a globalized market where a few artists garner all the attention. We tackle this debate by looking at how cross-country diversity in music charts has evolved over 4 years in 39 countries. We analyze two large-scale datasets from Spotify, the most popular streaming platform at the moment, and iTunes, one of the pioneers in digital music distribution. Our analysis reveals an upward trend in music consumption diversity that started in 2017 and spans across platforms. There are now significantly more songs, artists, and record labels populating the top charts than just a few years ago, making national charts more diverse from a global perspective. Furthermore, this process started at the peaks of countries’ charts, where diversity increased at a faster pace than at their bases. We characterize these changes as a process of Cultural Divergence, in which countries are increasingly distinct in terms of the music populating their music charts.

THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM AND ENTREPRENEURIAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION: A FORCE FIELD PERSPECTIVE

The world of business has evolved from the 19th century (steam, rail and electricity) to the 20th century (telephone, radio, television and, especially, the computer as the greatest information technology that converts analogue signals into a digital form including binary digits), and the 21st century (the fourth industrial revolution (4th IR) – described as the advent of “cyber-physical systems” involving entirely new capabilities for people and machines). Digital entrepreneurship is an emergent phenomenon in which new digital artefacts, platforms and infrastructure are used to pursue innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities, which, to a certain extent calls into questions the relevance and applicability of traditional understandings of entrepreneurship. The study on which this article is based investigated digital entrepreneurship’s impact on the dynamic social networking market in light of the infusion of disruptive and innovative technology. It aimed to determine the entrepreneurship capability and competence that impact on digital music change management; and to examine the extent to which digital music distribution balances the driving forces of digitisation and the restraining forces from disruptive technology. An exploratory research design was adopted using univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis techniques to analyse the data collected from 217 musicians. The study found that the Internet is capable of reliable delivery of music processes, products and services, thereby enhancing supply chain distribution competence and capability. Digital entrepreneurial innovations enable independent artists to create music according to their tastes and customer demand. Independent music production and creation drive the economic entrepreneurial dimension while technological advancements encourage digital independent music distribution.

The Impact of Perceived Ease of Use towards Perceived Enjoyment and Customer Experience to Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention (Case Study Among Spotify Premium Users)

The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of Perceived Ease of Use towards Perceived Enjoyment and Customer Experience to Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention. The digital world offers many business opportunities to companies that run platforms turning web-users into subscribers. The high trend of digital music distribution affects music sales in the physical form, seen from the income which decreases from year to year. From this point we can see that it is undeniable Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention plays an important factor in music streaming service. In this research, the data analysis method used is Structural Equation Model Partial Least Square (SEMPLS) method. To conduct analysis using PLS method, this research is using smartPLS 3.0 software.The hypothesis of the research are H1:Perceived Ease of Use has a positive effect to Perceived Enjoyment, H2: Perceived Ease of Use has a positive effect to Experience, H3: Perceived Enjoyment has a positive effect to Customer Experience, H4: Perceived Enjoyment has a positive effect to Customer Satisfaction, H5: Customer Experience has a positive effect to Customer Satisfaction, H6: Customer Satisfaction has a positive effect to Repurchase Intention. H7: Perceived Enjoyment mediates the relationship between Perceived Ease of Use and Customer Satisfaction. H8: Customer Experience mediates the relationship between Perceived Ease of Use and Customer Satisfaction. H9: Customer Satisfaction mediates the relationship between Perceived Enjoyment and Repurchase Intention. H10: Customer Satisfaction mediates the relationship between Customer Experience and Repurchase Intention. The result of this research shows that H1, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7, H9 and H10 are accepted but H2 and H8 are rejected.Keyword: Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Enjoyment, Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Repurchase Intention

A Model Based Approach to Spotify Data Analysis: A Beta GLMM

Digital music distribution is increasingly powered by automated mechanisms that continuously capture, sort and analyze large amounts of Web-based data. This paper deals with the management of songs audio features from a statistical point of view. In particular, it explores the data catching mechanisms enabled by Spotify Web API and suggests statistical tools for the analysis of these data. Special attention is devoted to songs popularity and a Beta model including random effects is proposed in order to give the first answer to questions like which are the determinants of popularity? The identification of a model able to describe this relationship, the determination within the set of characteristics of those considered most important in making a song popular is a very interesting topic for those who aim to predict the success of new products.

Digital music, online outlets and their business models

Goal: to describe the current configuration of digital music distribution, and to give an overview of the business practices adopted by digital music outlets.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: Longitudinal study using descriptive statistics and cluster analysis on two datasets collected in 2011 and 2018.
 Results: Three clusters were identified in 2011: paid download, music streaming, and video streaming. Data shows that, in 2018, although streaming was the predominant technical mode, many outlets still applied the paid download business model (BM), and that cluster presented the highest survival rate. Large outlets used streaming, but the specialized ones still adhered to download, and catalog specialization and consumer behavior are the explaining factors.
 Limitations of the investigation: Data was gathered from 70 digital outlets operating in two major digital markets, USA and UK, but some large ones, such as Korea and Japan, were not analyzed.
 Practical implications: While a dominant technology prevails on mass markets, old technologies can still be adopted in niche markets, due to market limitations and consumer behavior. Thus, even in concentrated markets, small competitors can benefit from exploring segments with special needs that are not addressed by large players.
 Originality/Value: There are few quantitative studies and longitudinal analyses on digital music business models.

The Value Gap in Music Markets in Canada and the Role of Copyright Law

The Value Gap in Music Markets in Canada and the Role of Copyright Law

How Incumbents Manage Waves of Disruptive Innovations: An Exploratory Analysis of the Global Music Industry

Innovation scholars have paid special attention on the managerial approaches that incumbents should adopt to promptly respond to the emergence of disruptive innovations. These approaches include, among the others, the use of open innovation or the establishment of ambidextrous organizations. However, this body of research has not analyzed how incumbents use these approaches over time, although they are very often confronted with waves of disruptive innovations that cyclically take place along the lifecycle of an industry. This paper looks into this issue through a historical analysis of the global music industry. For each of the three waves of disruptive innovations that have hit this industry over the last 15 years (i.e. digital music distribution, permanent digital download and music streaming), we analyze the reactions of incumbents in terms of managerial approaches they adopted to respond to the emergence of the disruptive innovation. Therefore, we develop a model suggesting how incumbents evolve over time their responses to cycles of disruptive technological changes.

국내 음악산업의 디지털 음악제작과 유통구조 분석

문화예술은 현시대의 특징을 가장 잘 보여주는 인류문화시대의 언어이다. 문화예술은 예술의 음악, 미술, 문학, 연극 등의 장르들을 내포하고 있으며, 문화는 보다 더 넓은 범위를 포괄하는 것으로 사회의 상징체계와 사회 구성원 간 공유하는 삶의 방식 및 가치관, 그리고 인간의 지적·정신적·창의적 활동의 결과물이 함께 한다. 문화는 상품화 및 산업화를 통하여 문화예술산업(Art Cultural Industries)의 영역으로 확대되었고, 특히‘디지털 음악산업’은 시대의 흐름과 함께 색다른 변모와 성장세를 보였다. 본 연구는 문화예술시대의 음악산업에 대한 탐색적 연구로서 한류콘텐츠의 인기와 함께 새로운 성장세를 보이고 있는 디지털 음원의 제작과 유통 과정의 구조분석을 중심으로 문화예술시대의 디지털 음악산업에 대한 탐색적 연구를 하였다. 첫째, 국내 음악산업에 대한 이해를 위하여 국내 음악산업의 범위, 음악산업의 규모, 음반산업의 규모, 온라인 음악유통업의 규모를 살펴보았다. 둘째, 디지털 음반 제작과정의 이해를 위하여 수록곡의 수량과 성격에 따른 음반 분류, 음원 제작 과정, 홍보 자료 제작 과정, 홍보방법을 통한 디지털 음반 제작에 대한 이해를 도모하였다. 셋째, 디지털 음반 유통과정의 이해를 위하여 음반의 유통과정, 유통준비, 정산을 중심으로 분석하였다.

Metacompetition: Competing over the Game to Be Played

Strategy research often studies competitions among organizations and defines the winners of these competitions as “great.” But we typically treat as a given the specific formal and informal rules of the game, the logics, that govern these competition. Yet the logics governing competitions themselves are decided through a higher-level “metacompetition” with other possible logics. Metacompetitions determine who can compete, how they can compete, the criteria that will be used to evaluate success and failure, and the payoffs to competition. When we ask “where do great strategies come from” but ignore metacompetition, we take as a given the very process that gives us the rules by which we determine greatness. In this paper I argue that to understand where great strategies come from, we must first understand how metacompetition determines which logics prevail in a market. I develop an ecological model of metacompetition, and I estimate the model using data on metacompetition in the digital music distribution industry.

The social and built infrastructure of cultural policy: between selective popular memory and future plans

The rise of digital music distribution has caused decreasing returns from CD and cassette sales in Burkina Faso and Ghana. In response to this decline in revenues, artists and their management have been trying to find ways to find other sources of income. One major way of doing this has been through focusing on (live) music performance. Yet this requires built and social infrastructures that are not always present, functional, or put to full use. This paper explores how musicians and music workers make sense of the cultural policies that have shaped and will shape the built infrastructure (concert venues, clubs, etc.) they need. Because the complex links between the built and social infrastructures mean that history weighs significantly on future plans, this paper argues that calls for new venues cannot be the solution to the range of existing issues without engaging more thoroughly with the past.

A 'Golden Age' for the Creative Sector? The Effect of Digitisation and the Spread of the Internet on Creative Industries

This paper seeks to test the hypothesis that digitisation of content (e.g. music, film and books) and the spread of the Internet over the past 25 years, together with copyright law exceptions, have enabled a “golden age” for creativity. Large technology companies have for some time promoted this golden age hypothesis, claiming that these developments have reduced the costs of producing and distributing creative content and thereby led to a golden age for content or creative industries. This claimed renaissance period for content has further been used in policy-making processes around the world to support the case for weaker copyright law. In this paper we try to test the golden age hypothesis using data that has become available over the past 20 years. The reason we do this is that a more cautious view of the impact of content digitisation and the spread of the Internet predicts an offsetting opposite effect, namely that it has reduced the effective level of protection offered by copyright law, and weakened the position of creators, by enabling greater market bypass or piracy, thereby reducing sales, investment and output in the creative sector, and increasing the need for greater copyright protection to restore economic welfare. This paper tests whether content digitisation and the spread of the Internet has been associated with a golden age for content industries by looking at data from around the world on sales, investment and employment in creative industries - key drivers of economic welfare. We look at trends in these variables both before and during the process of content digitisation and the spread of the Internet. We do this in three sections, addressing three sub-questions as follows: 1. Has there been a Golden Age for Sales? For this we review the general evidence available on sales of music and film from around the world both before and during the process of content digitisation and the spread of the Internet, and develop a focused case study on sales of music in Canada. 2. Has there been a Golden Age for investment? In this section we review recent analysis from the UK measuring trends in investment in copyright goods both before and during the process of content digitisation and the spread of the Internet. 3. Has there been a Golden Age for Employment? We then finally look at recent analysis by the US Commerce Department on employment in copyright intensive industries in the US both before and during the process of content digitisation and the spread of the Internet. All the above evidence tends to refute the golden age view. It appears that the lower costs of copying due to the spread of digitisation and the Internet lowered the effective rate of copyright protection, or increased the ease of market bypass and piracy, and offset any positive effect that the spread of digitisation and the Internet may have had in lowering the costs of supply of legitimate production, and therefore increasing sales. At the same time copyright law was weakened by the introduction of immunities, or safe harbours and exceptions for internet intermediaries this in turn substantially weakened the ability of rights holders to enforce their rights in digital music distribution, leading to a rapid growth in market bypass involving both unauthorized, and “under-authorized” or “forced“ use at below sustainable market prices.

Close reading big data: The Echo Nest and the production of (rotten) music metadata

Digital music distribution is increasingly powered by automated mechanisms that continuously capture, sort and analyze large amounts of Web-based data. This paper traces the historical development of music metadata management and its ties to the growing of the field of ‘big data’ knowledge production. In particular, it explores the data catching mechanisms enabled by the Spotify-owned company The Echo Nest, and provides a close reading of parts of the company’s collection and analysis of data regarding musicians. Doing so, it reveals evidence of the ways in which trivial, random, and unintentional data enters into the data steams that power today’s digital music distribution. The presence of such curious data needs to be understood as a central part of contemporary algorithmic knowledge production, and calls for a need to re-conceptualize both (digital) musical artifacts and (digital) musical expertize.

Why buy an album? The motivations behind recorded music purchases.

There has been little research into the motivations behind recorded music purchases, despite recorded music sales dropping steadily in the past decade. It is thought that widespread music piracy has played a critical role in this shift. Though 39% of revenues in the recorded music industry now come from digital services, physical formats still account for over half of all global revenues (IFPI, 2014). Furthermore, research shows that while so-called second generation (on-demand services) are taking over, most people still possess a physical music collection and actively listen to digital collections (Liikanen & Aman, 2015). Of interest in the present study, is why individuals continue to buy music, given they no longer need to in order to listen to their favorite songs.The Recorded Music Industry and the Digital Revolution: A Brief OverviewThe music industry has undergone huge changes over the past decade, as a direct result of the digital revolution. In particular, practices in the distribution and promotion of recorded music have changed from conventional purchases of albums and singles in different physical formats to digital formats via the Internet.Pioneering peer-to-peer file-sharing service, Napster is largely responsible for setting digital downloads into motion, which facilitated widespread music piracy on a global scale. Released in 1999, Napster demonstrated how quickly and easily music could be uploaded and downloaded on the Internet as well as the potential for digital music distribution to be profitable. Though music piracy has existed for decades, is the digitization of recorded music that has inspired widespread copyright infringement of protected works on an unprecedented scale. The true prevalence of music piracy remains unknown (as with all crime), but conservative estimates of Internet users actively downloading copyrighted media illegally tend to cluster around one third of the global population (see Bustinza, Vendrell-Herrero, Parry, & Myrthianos, 2013). Antipiracy measures to date have largely failed, with pirates adapting well to technical and legislative changes-Higgins and Marcum (2011) explain that knowledgeable Internet users always seem to outsmart new technologies faster than they can be produced. In recent years, the most effective antipiracy measure appears to be the rise of increasingly more attractive legal alternatives to digital piracy. As the late former Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated: You'll never stop [piracy], what you can do is compete with it (quoted in Goodell, 2003). Indeed, the iPod was released soon after Napster boomed, quickly followed by the i-Tunes store. Apple remains the market leader on digital music.The emerging preference for digital music has altered how music fans consume and enjoy recorded music, where over 80 legal modes of accessing digital music now exist in the United Kingdom, in addition to illegal means. Music can now be bought on a track-by-track basis, streamed via subscription services such as Spotify or Deezer, or listened to on-demand from personal collections stored in cloud services (networked online storage of data), to name but a few options. As much as the digitization of music, increased access to the Internet along with the increased capabilities of smartphones have shaped new listening behaviors. Music listening can now meet particular needs such as aiding a workout at the gym or managing the hectic lifestyle of living in busy urban cities. The popularity of music streaming via music subscription services calls into question what now means to own music.While there has been a renewed interest in vinyl, largely thanks to the likes of Record Store Day (where artists release exclusive content), The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in 2013 reported a steady increase in global digital revenue from music annually since 2008. IFPI notes that subscription services are now a central part of the recorded music market, with 20 million paying subscribers worldwide in 2012-an increase of 44% on 2011. …

Music, Youtube, and Academic Libraries

The current environment of video sharing sites like YouTube, and direct-to-consumer digital music distribution models, presents challenges to academic music libraries’ primary mission of building collections of materials to support research and create a record of scholarly and artistic output. The rise in the use of smart mobile devices that allow individuals to store large quantities of music and use sites like YouTube has created an expectation that finding and accessing music should be convenient and easy. This article examines the ways in which university music faculty members in the United States consider YouTube use in their teaching and research. It finds that there are differences in how faculty in different music subdisciplines view and use YouTube, and that there is a dichotomy in how faculty as a whole value YouTube for teaching compared with their own work. Faculty understanding of YouTube’s content, legality, and applications for teaching and research varies widely. Finally, this article illuminates how faculty view their institutional libraries in comparison to sites like YouTube, and explores the implications all of this might have for the future of library collections.

What's Going on? Digitization and Global Music Trade Patterns Since 2006

The objective of this paper is to document the evolution of cross-border music trade patterns in this transition period and to explain what drives digital music trade patterns. The shift from analogue to digital music distribution has substantially reduced trade costs and has enlarged the choice sets of music consumers around the world. Using comprehensive data on digital track sales in the US, Canada, and 16 European countries, 2006-2011, we document patterns of music trade in the digital era and contrast it with what’s known from elsewhere about trade in popular music for the past half century. While home bias in music consumption among the top 100 songs had grown in the pre-digital distribution period prior to 2006, home bias has declined since then. We find that the share of imported songs in music consumption has grown in all countries except in the US. Moreover, although the number of European songs available has risen faster than the number of US songs, the market share of the US in digital music sales has increased while the market shares of European repertoires have fallen. US repertoire holds the largest market share in almost every country. Home bias is lower in the long tail than at the top end of the distribution. We consider four candidate explanations for the shift away from domestic music: a) that growth in availability of particular repertoires explains their growth in total sales and market shares, b) that changes in the effect of distance-related trade costs on trade made possible by digitization explain changed patterns of trade, c) that changed preferences toward particular origin repertoires explains changed patterns, and d) that recent vintages of particular repertoires have grown more appealing to world consumers. We conclude that a combination of c) and d) offers the most credible explanation for the observed patterns.

Editorial: On the 15-year anniversary of Napster - Digital music as boundary object

This special issue and its range of contributions, from both emerging and established scholars with interests in digital music distribution, provides a particular and novel depth of vision, into both developments in digital music in the time since Napster, and the current issues and discussions in the field. As illustrated by the content of this issue, research is vibrant, drawn from a rich variety of disciplinary orientations, and shows especially the crucial and ongoing importance of music online, internationally and across academic communities.

Within-Group Concentration, Between-Group Concentration, and the Winners and Losers of Digital Music Distribution

By lowering search costs, making more products available, and providing access to free content, information technology (IT) has changed patterns of market concentration in media industries such as recorded music. In this paper, I argue that to understand how IT has changed media markets we need to go beyond considering market concentration in terms of the distribution of sales by product, and also consider the distribution of sales by group of products: between-group concentration. With cross-country panel data, I show that IT had different effects on sales that depended strongly on the between-group concentration in each country at the time of the internet shock. I develop and test the hypothesis that the formal industry fared relatively better in markets with more between-group concentration than in markets with less. I conclude with a discussion of lessons and further questions implied by the results.