Mutually Beneficial Publisher and Artist Regulated Distribution Model for the Niche Music Industry

Copyright and intellectual protection cannot always answer the requirements for a niche independent or minority language music publisher or artist. This paper assesses the challenges faced within the independent niche and minority language music market, and seeks to establish a model which could generate a sustainable digital income and reap remuneration for creativity. Using Varian’s (2005) fourteen business model categorisations as a framework, four types of business model solutions are considered: a price based model; a control model; a bundled model; and finally an enhanced content and relationship model. This paper concludes with a conceptual model which could be mutually beneficial for publishers and consumers of niche music. The niche, independent or minority language artists or publishers will be referred to as micro or SME companies (Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises) within this paper. Micro and SME’s as a classification, rather than independent publishers, limits the scope of the proposed model’s application to companies with a staff of fewer than 25 and a turnover below £10million. These are companies with limited resources to invest in researching and developing a digital distribution strategy

Value perception in music information systems

When referring to the value that IS adds to business and provides to consumers, we often (implicitly or explicitly) pertain to monetary value. However, perspectives exist regarding the notion of value which go beyond the monetary significance and maintain a direct influence on businesses and their performance. This paper explores the concept of value, its importance in IS, and the importance of understanding of how IS stakeholders perceive value. The paper focuses on the challenge of studying value in IS -although value manifests in properties of an information system, it can only be experienced and perceived subjectively through sense perception, experience and judgement of the system stakeholders. To address this challenge, the paper suggests the existence of a clearly shifting trend in the perception of IS technology and comments on the social impacts of end-users (consumers) being absorbed into the value-creation process for an information system in the music industry.<br /

The Future of Digital Music Services in Three Stereotypes; How Focus Groups of End Users See the New Business Models

“I am just a stereotype” sang Terry Hall in 1980. Ariola records took them in and made the band The Specials a world success. How will that process go in 2014? Will they put it on You Tube for free? Do they need a record company? Will they have less or more fans, earn less or more money? Focus group interviews with 90 people between the ages of 15 and 25 were successfully employed to create 20 new business models for the digital music industry. Analysis with grounded theory revealed that a new business model is necessary and three types for future music services to create and capture value from digital music were found: Social focus; Artist focus and Extra Value focus. More than 50% of the research subjects put the emphasis on social functionalities of the music services, while the value network was underestimated. For artists we see opportunities and threats in the business models: on one hand they can use the worldwide niches to earn money, on the other hand the new business models do not seem to reimburse them enough. Finally, value capture is an overall problem that is best solved in the extra value focus business models. A combination of the three types using the best of each of them guides the way to a successful business model of the futur

Co-evolution between Stages of Institutionalization and Agency: The Case of the Music Industry’s Business Model

The relationship between structure and agency is a central issue in studying change. The aim of this paper is to focus on the interactions between the process of institutional change and the actors’ strategic behaviour. Based on research on the music industry, we observed co-evolution between the actor level and the organizational field level by identifying three consequences of the incumbents’ actions on the institutional change process (alternative practices selection, alternative practices modification and process duration) and three consequences of coercive pressures on agency (strategic adjustment, traditional practices modification and legitimization).La relation entre structure et agence est une problématique centrale dans l’étude du changement. L’objectif de cette recherche est de s’intéresser aux interactions entre le processus de changement institutionnel et le comportement stratégique des acteurs organisationnels. A partir d’une étude empirique menée sur l’industrie de la musique, nous observons la co-évolution entre le niveau de l’acteur et le niveau du champ organisationnel en identifiant trois conséquences de l’agence sur le changement institutionnel (sélection des pratiques alternatives, modification des pratiques alternatives et durée du processus) et trois conséquences des pressions coercitives sur l’agence (ajustement stratégique, modification des pratiques traditionnelles et légitimation).La relación entre estructura y agencia es una problemática central en el estudio del cambio. El objetivo de esta investigación es estudiar las interacciones entre el proceso de cambio institucional y el omportamiento estratégico de los actores organizacionales. A partir de un estudio empírico hecho sobre la industria de la música se observa la coevolución entre el nivel del actor y el nivel del campo organizacional al identificar tres consecuencias de la agencia sobre el cambio institucional (selección de prácticas alternativas, modificación de las prácticas alternativas y duración del proceso) y tres consecuencias de las presiones coercitivas sobre la agencia (ajuste estratégico, modificación de las prácticas tradicionales y legitimación)

Digitalization of the Music Industry: Artists as Entrepreneurs

The main objectives of this study were to explore how artists are approaching their careers, how they are monetizing their creative work, and the implications of digitalization on the value chain. Furthermore, to explore how artists are adapting to new dynamics of the music industry and technology. Qualitative research approach was chosen in order to gain deeper understanding of the issue in hand. Four independent musicians and one signed musician were interviewed. The findings suggest that artist-entrepreneurs are using web 2.0 in innovative ways to monetize their creative work and build a sustainable career. Furthermore. artist-entrepreneurs have control over the value chain and its various steps, but acknowledge the substantial help record labels can provide. Artists have several avenues to explore for their careers. The democratization of music has given further incentive to classify artists as entrepreneurs. The saturation of the marketplace has caused higher competition where artists must develop their brand and image in order to stand out, along with taking advantage of web 2.0 in innovative ways to monetize their creative work. The artist-entrepreneur value chain consists of delivering value to the consumers through web 2.0

Collaborative, co-operative and collective business models in the ‘new’ music industries: a literature review

This literature review takes as its starting point that the challenge facing the music industries – an example of what Christensen and Raynor (2003) call ‘disruptive innovation’ – is primarily one of business models, rather than technology. After all, the shift to MP3 has surely had a far more profound impact than that to cassette or CD. Rather than attempting to cover all aspects of the music industries, I limit my focus to the effects of digital technologies on musicians themselves, specifically in terms of recordings, and their responses in terms of business models – in particular, models that could be seen as somewhere between the traditional label and the fully DIY approach. In reviewing the literature on collaborative, co-operative and collective business models, I aim to identify and define key terms; to cite the various collective, co-operative and collaborative models in the music industries that have been cited by journalists; to analyse their underlying business models as far as possible; and to define the parameters of future research

The networked record industry: how blockchain technology could transform the consumption and monetisation of recorded music

Following the emergence of file-sharing networks such as Napster and BitTorrent, the record industry has tended to regard peer-to-peer networks in a negative light. This is hardly surprising: in the terms of Yochai Benkler, such networks provided ‘technological shock’ but not ‘economic sustainability’, at least form an industry perspective. Some have seen recent technological developments as revolutionary, but it is a revolution only in potential: though music can be recorded and distributed more easily than ever, there remains a crisis in terms of attribution and monetisation that the Sisyphean ‘war on copyright’ seems unlikely to solve. Royalty payments in the streaming era, meanwhile, are slow, inefficient and enormously complex. A twentieth century, industrial information model, then, remains dominant, although the apparently inexorable overall decline in income from recorded music is gradually reducing it to a mere husk. This paper suggests that blockchain technology, which, like Napster and BitTorrent, harnesses the power of peer-to-peer networks, could represent a more sustainable model, realising the revolutionary potential of disintermediation and direct-to-fan models to facilitate a shift to what, with a nod to Benkler’s ‘networked information economy’, might be called the networked record industry. As well as exploring the workings of distributed ledger technology, this article outlines the transformation it could bring about in determining the authorship and attribution of recorded music; enabling asset transfers and the tracking of provenance; allowing artists to determine their own pricing and terms of use for their music; facilitating licensing through metadata; introducing frictionless, near-instant micropayments for streaming and downloads. The broader themes of the networked record industry – disintermediation, transparency and the nexus of control – are also explored, as well as barriers to adoption

Business model innovation in the digital musik industry

Durch dramatisch sinkende Verkaufszahlen innerhalb der letzten zehn Jahre kämpft die Musik Industrie mit einem unaufhaltbaren Einbruch der Umsätze. Die Entwicklung des Internets und der damit verbundene technologische Fortschritt haben neue Wege geebnet, Musik zu konsu-mieren. Die Entwicklung mobiler mp3 Player, CD-Brenner, sowie schnellen und kostengüns-tigen Internetverbindungen hat das Verhalten der Konsumenten maßgeblich verändert. Musik kann nun direkt aus dem Internet auf unterschiedliche Medien geladen und an nahezu jedem erdenklichen Ort genutzt werden. Es ist höchste Zeit für die Musikindustrie auf diese Verän-derungen zu reagieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit definiert den Begriff des Geschäftsmodells (Business Model), geht auf die Innovation des Geschäftsmodells (Business Model Innovation) näher ein und stellt die Geschäftsmodelle mittels Taxonomie (Business Model Framework) gegenüber. Etwaige Barrieren und Widerstände werden im Anschluss daran analysiert. Die Musikindustrie stellt den nächsten Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit dar. Mittels geschichtlichem Überblick wird der Werdegang der Musikindustrie von ihrer Entstehung bis heute dargestellt. Dies dient als Basis für die traditionellen Geschäftsmodelle, die teilweise bis heute noch zur Anwendung kommen. Die Analyse von innovativen Geschäftsmodellen und die Anwendung der Taxonomie in der Praxis stellen den Kern dieses Kapitels dar. Abschließend findet auch das Datenschutzgesetz Erwähnung.The falling sales figures and the associated revenue collapse within the music industry call for a major change. Due to the digital revolution and the gaining importance of personal com-puters (PC’s) as well as the Internet new ways to distribute music appeared. The technical development including broadband Internet, facilitated the progression of digital distribution offering music for little or no money. Music can now be downloaded in virtually no time on a legal or illegal basis. Unsurprisingly, the majority of downloads offered for free are cases of copyright infringement. Getting the desired music just in time without any delay or effort for free via illegal downloading is the problem the music industry is facing right now. It is need-less to say, that most of the customers and even some artists welcome this development. The digital age has introduced a new era of how music is being distributed. Downloads, as well as digital communities, are undoubtedly the future of the music industry. This master thesis ex-amines the basic element of each company, the business model. It will define the crucial ele-ments as well as potential improvement. Since the music industry is seeking for changes within their own business model, new ways to distribute music on a legal basis are indispensible. By that all the entrepreneurs involved within the value chain, might benefit. All the alternative distribution strategies will be based on the traditional value chain in order to make them comparable

Analyzing suitable revenue model of digital music platforms in China based on the assumption of paid-music

Objectives of the study: As changes in the distribution channels of music, the online platforms become the most popular and most important channel around audiences all over the world. But in the meanwhile, pirated music on the Internet is a great threat for the licensed digital music services. Especially in China, due to the audience's lower willingness-to-pay and the rampant pirated music, music platforms are looking forward to some practical solutions. This research aims at exploring feasible revenue models with applicable features for Chinese digital music platforms. Academic background and methodology: At first, literature reviews contributed to build the research framework of this study, which included business model, revenue models used in digital music platforms, web 2.0, and the value-adding strategy. The empirical research was divided into two parts - business model evaluation of leading international music platforms and the China market study. The business model evaluation of selected case companies was based on the modified business model. And the case companies were selected following the four different types of revenue models. The second part of China market study was comprised of a SWOT analysis of local digital music industry and the consuming behavior of Chinese audience. Furthermore, the business model evaluation was regarded as benchmarking to highlight specific features that the foreign music platforms are using. The China market study was the ground of analyzing and reflecting beneficial characters for the local digital music platforms. Findings and conclusions: The essential finding of this research is that the artist-to-consumer model is the most suitable model for Chinese digital music platforms. Moreover, a three-sided platform should be developed to leverage the power of audience, advertiser, and celebrities and stars. Application of big data is helpful for music platforms not only at attracting more advertisers and music listeners, but also at encouraging the conversion rate. The value-adding services could combine online features and offline activities through fully leveraging celebrity effects

Change and growth of Australian music value chains

The Australian music industry is growing and developing yet specific information about the ways in which distribution systems develop is limited. In this study I examined the growth and change of the Australian music value chain. This includes the development of digital distribution systems and the effect that peer-to-peer technology has on system development, specifically the disintermediation between consumers and artists to the detriment of the multinational value chains. The drivers of this change are broken into social and technical elements in order to describe the growth and change occurring. The method used included a comprehensive literature review and use of secondary data from key music industry associations. The Australian music industry is a subset of the global industry and is led by foreign markets and their methods in which music content moves from the creators to the consumers. The consumption patterns of Australian music consumers are changing. The overall value of the music industry is dropping as the new digital downloads market emerges and the overall volume of sales increases; this reflects similar trends in foreign markets. CD single sales have dropped and digital single sales (in MP3 format) have increased. However, there needs to be a balance in the future development of Australian music distribution systems between the needs of music consumers and the sustainability of music companies, where there is both connectivity and steady revenue flow. There are technical elements that have caused a movement away from the traditional forms of music distribution as new technologies facilitate the change, such as Apple&#039;s iPod and broadband Internet connections. Advancement of distribution systems has increased piracy levels and the response has been the implementation of digital rights management (DRM), which prevents connectivity. There are also social elements that affect growth and change such as connectivity, or the consumers freedom to choose when, where and how to listen to their music. When music product has a restriction placed upon it its value to the consumer drops. Multinational music companies have failed to recognise the value users place on the freedom to pick and choose and have tried to control rather than to co-develop systems that meets both parties needs