3 research outputs found
The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis
For industries ranging from software to pharmaceuticals and entertainment,
there is an intense debate about the appropriate level of
protection for intellectual property. The Internet provides a natural
crucible to assess the implications of reduced protection because it
drastically lowers the cost of copying information. In this paper, we
analyze whether file sharing has reduced the legal sales of music. While
this question is receiving considerable attention in academia, industry,
and Congress, we are the first to study the phenomenon employing
data on actual downloads of music files.We match an extensive sample
of downloads to U.S. sales data for a large number of albums. To
establish causality, we instrument for downloads using data on international
school holidays. Downloads have an effect on sales that is
statistically indistinguishable from zero. Our estimates are inconsistent
We would like to thank Bharat Anand, Gary Becker, Bob Frank, Shane Greenstein,
Austan Goolsbee, Alan Krueger, Steven Levitt, Tom Mroz, Alan Sorensen, Joel Waldfogel,
Steven Wildman, Pai-Ling Yin, participants at numerous seminars, and two anonymous
referees for helpful comments. This project would not have been possible without the
assistance of several individuals and organizations. MixMasterFlame and the FlameNap
network shared P2P data with us, and BigChampagne LLC, the CMJ Network, Nathaniel
Leibowitz, and Nevil Brownlee generously provided auxiliary data. We thank Keith Ross
and David Weekly for assistance in understanding the KaZaA, OpenNap, and WinMX
search protocols and database indices. Sarah Woolverton and Christina Hsiung Chen
provided superb research assistance. The financial support of the George F. Baker Foundation
(Oberholzer-Gee) and the Kenan Faculty Fund (Strumpf) is gratefully acknowledged.
We appreciated the aural support from Massive Attack, Sigur Ros, and the Mountain
Goats
Towards a framework for identifying attitudes and intentions to music acquisition from legal and illegal channels
Technological developments have had a profound effect on modern music acquisition, allowing people to share music over the Internet for free. The research identifies the antecedents of consumers’ attitudes and intentions to acquire music from various channels. The paper reports findings of a structured questionnaire survey of university students in the UK and Greece (n=511). Using structural equation modeling the authors conclude that consumers’ intention to acquire music via a legal channel is influenced by idolatry, the perceived quality of music, the perceived likelihood of punishment (digital legal channel only) and their subjective norm. On the other hand, intention to acquire music via an illegal channel is influenced by the perceived benefits of piracy. The price of legitimate music was only significant for the illegal street vendor channel, whereas idolatry had a positive effect on illegal downloading. Gender had moderating effects on perceived likelihood of punishment and attitude, and income moderated attitude and intention from P2P platforms. The findings carry important implications for academic researchers, practitioners and policy makers