Music Piracy Among College Students

This study explores the predictors of music piracy. Do age, gender, class rank, and major, and certain self-reported usage and knowledge factors help explain college students’ engagement in music piracy? Additionally, we seek to learn the impact of ethics, legal and social norms on illegal download intentions. A survey was constructed and completed by over two hundred college students. Data has been collected and analysis has been completed using multiple regression analysis and structured equation modeling (SEM). Findings from multiple regression analysis indicate that demographic factors are not good predictors of music piracy; however, the number of digital music files owned by an individual and the individual’s own level of knowledge about music piracy are significant predictors of the number of illegally downloaded music files possessed by the individual. This study also found through SEM that legal and ethics factors do help explain intentions toward music piracy

Be Careful What You Wish For: Popular Music in an Age in Which “Information Wants to be Free”

This article posits that the widespread adoption of music recording files as the “preferred” form for the storage, retrieval, and dissemination of music is not, and never has been driven by users/listeners; that this is an oversimplified understanding of what has happened since roughly the turn of the century. Instead, the article makes the historically-based argument that what has happened has been driven by the industry side of the equation – even in the face of what is, again, an oversimplified understanding: that the record industry has undeniably suffered and contracted in size and revenue as a result of the digital turn. The overarching significance of this argument is an attempt to bring some much needed perspective to the many analyses of what has been going on in the realm of popular music and the music industry, and to suggest what the consequence of this state of affairs might mean for the future of both the music and its industry

Myths about musicians and music piracy

Without hesitation, people casually discuss having watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones having accessed it illegally. They are disclosing not only an interest in a TV show, but confessing to a crime – a normalised crime. And by people I mean lots of people – conservative estimates suggest at least a third of the global population engages in digital piracy. An obvious reason why is to get access to media for free – it’s a low-risk, high-reward activity. In terms of music, the focus of this article, my assessment of why is a feeling of poor value for money – this is not the same as simply wanting something for free. And yet, music has never been cheaper in human history (nor have its biggest consumers, young people, had more disposable income). Such is the backdrop of my research into the psychology of music piracy. The search for the motivations which drive engagement in illegal downloading instead yielded insight into the justifications for doing so. Not reasons, excuses. It would appear that people who engage in digital piracy have constructed a belief system, one which is not rooted in reason or logic but in the hearsay that is accumulated from peer association, from sharing and circulating so-called ‘knowledge’ amongst like-minded friends. It’s tantamount to conspiratorial thinking, rejecting claims which contradict deeply held beliefs

Lowering the pirate flag: a TPB study of the factors influencing the intention to pay for movie streaming services

The launch of several movie streaming services has raised new questions about how online consumers deal with both legal and illegal options to obtain their desired products. This paper investigates the factors influencing consumers’ intentions to subscribe to online movie streaming services. These services have challenged the dramatic growth in their illegal counterpart in recent years. Taking the theory of planned behavior as a starting point, we extended existing models in the literature by incorporating factors that are specific to consumer behavior in this particular field. A quantitative survey was conducted for the Italian market, and structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Attitudes, involvement with products, moral judgement and frequency of past behavior were found to be the most important factors in explaining the intention to pay for movie streaming services. The paper provides insights for policy makers and industry managers on the marketing communication strategies needed to minimize the risk of digital piracy

The Determinants of Music Piracy in a Sample of College Students

Why do some individuals pirate digital music while others pay for it? Using data on a sample of undergraduate students, we study the determinants of music piracy by looking at whether a respondent’s last song was obtained illegally or not. In doing so, we incorporate (i) the individual-specific transactions costs that constitute the effective price of illegal music; and (ii) individual willingness to pay (WTP) for digital music, which we elicit using a simple field experiment and which we use to control for the unobserved heterogeneity of preferences between respondents. Our empirical results indicate that a respondent’s subjective probability of facing a lawsuit and her degree of morality both have a negative impact on the likelihood that her last song was obtained illegally. These results are robust whether WTP is estimated parametrically or nonparametrically. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of our findings.Music Piracy, Transactions Costs, Subjective Expectations

Barriers to Financial Compensation for Artists in the Recording Industry in the Digital Age

For decades, consumers, due to frequent technological advances, have utilized a variety of music-listening processes that have each become obsolete as more easily accessible technologies emerged. This change in music consumption methods is often detrimental to parties in the recording industry. The digitalization of the recording industry has allowed consumers to obtain music through means other than physical purchase, leading to well-documented financial insecurity for artists (Eiriz & Leite, 2017). In 2018, the Music Industry Research Association (MIRA) conducted a survey of 1,227 musicians and found that 61% of the group agreed that their music-related income is not enough to cover their living expenses (MIRA, 2018). For this reason, frequent attempts to deter widespread copyright infringement have been made. However, the aggressive litigation strategy of the recording industry and the development of streaming services as a viable music consumption method have instead decreased sales and negatively impacted artists’ revenue from the recording industry (Fedock, 2005; Marshall, 2015)

Examining the Role of Music Streaming Motives, Social Identification, and Technological Engagement in Digital Music Streaming Service Use

According to the Nielsen Music 360 Research Report, 67% of all music consumers in the United States used digital music streaming services to listen, discover, and share music online in 2014 (The Nielsen Company, 2014). As such, communications scholars and music industry professionals are beginning to recognize the importance of understanding the factors that influence digital music listener behavior. Therefore, this study proposes an expanded theory of planned behavior model (TPB) by incorporating music streaming motives, social identification, and technological engagement into the original TPB model framework in an effort to gain a better understanding of people\u27s intentions to use digital music streaming services as well as the amount of time spent listening to them. Results suggest that both the original TPB and expanded TPB models can be successfully applied within the context of digital music streaming service use. Specifically, attitudes as well as convenience emerged as positive contributors to intention to use digital music streaming services, while entertainment along with social identification, technological engagement, and behavioral intention emerged as positive contributors to streaming behavior. Additionally, information seeking and pass time emerged as negative contributors to these two behavioral outcomes. However, adding these additional components only improved the overall ability of the expanded model to predict streaming behavior. Both models also explained a larger percentage of intention to use digital music streaming services as compared to total time spent listening. As a result, this study implies the practical importance of understanding the fundamental differences between what drives listener intentions to use digital music streaming services as compared to what drives the actual amount of time listeners spend using digital music streaming services

Examining the Role of Music Streaming Motives, Social Identification, and Technological Engagement in Digital Music Streaming Service Use

According to the Nielsen Music 360 Research Report, 67% of all music consumers in the United States used digital music streaming services to listen, discover, and share music online in 2014 (The Nielsen Company, 2014). As such, communications scholars and music industry professionals are beginning to recognize the importance of understanding the factors that influence digital music listener behavior. Therefore, this study proposes an expanded theory of planned behavior model (TPB) by incorporating music streaming motives, social identification, and technological engagement into the original TPB model framework in an effort to gain a better understanding of people\u27s intentions to use digital music streaming services as well as the amount of time spent listening to them. Results suggest that both the original TPB and expanded TPB models can be successfully applied within the context of digital music streaming service use. Specifically, attitudes as well as convenience emerged as positive contributors to intention to use digital music streaming services, while entertainment along with social identification, technological engagement, and behavioral intention emerged as positive contributors to streaming behavior. Additionally, information seeking and pass time emerged as negative contributors to these two behavioral outcomes. However, adding these additional components only improved the overall ability of the expanded model to predict streaming behavior. Both models also explained a larger percentage of intention to use digital music streaming services as compared to total time spent listening. As a result, this study implies the practical importance of understanding the fundamental differences between what drives listener intentions to use digital music streaming services as compared to what drives the actual amount of time listeners spend using digital music streaming services

Determinants of Consumer Purchase Behaviour of Pirated Music CDs in Mainland Tanzania: A PLS SEM Approach

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of subjective norms , idolatry and intentions of consumer purchase behaviour of pirated music CDs in Tanzania. In order to empirically test the hypotheses of the study, questionnaires were distributed to 491 users of pirated music CDs in Tanzania. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using PLS- SEM. The results of the study revealed that subjective norm and intention are positively related to consumer purchase behaviour. On the other hand, idolatry has a negative relationship with purchase behaviour. The results of this study will be useful for marketers, businessman and music promoters when identifying the factors that are to be considered when intending to improve the level of sales among music CDs users in Tanzania. It will also assist the policy makers to come up with policies especially in the area of norms so as to improve the rate of sales. The findings of this study may benefit music marketers, producers and practitioners in their marketing communication to design their music strategies in the Tanzania context