Digital piracy: An assessment of consumer piracy risk and optimal supply chain coordination strategies.

Digital piracy and the emergence of new distribution channels have changed the dynamics of supply chain coordination and created many interesting problems. There has been increased attention to understanding the phenomenon of consumer piracy behavior and its impact on supply chain profitability. The purpose of this dissertation is to better understand the impact of digital piracy on online music channel and optimal supply chain strategies which achieve high levels of coordination. A multi-method approach including survey, mathematical modeling, and simulation are used to a) analyze the impact of piracy on digital music channel coordination under different contract arrangements, b) develop theoretical and operational basis for conceptualizing a measurement model of consumer piracy risk, c) examine the effectiveness of piracy control strategies used to dissuade consumers from illegal music downloads. Findings from this dissertation contribute to the literature on digital piracy, consumer piracy behavior, online channel distribution, and supply chain coordination, and provide several important managerial implications

A study on China digital music channel mode and channel coordination

Content providers, service providers and telecom operators in China digital music market compete expanding to upstream and downstream channel resource. The fierce channel competition between participants has impede user service level and the development of digital music market. This paper researches into two questions. The first one is how the participants compete in four different competitive channel modes, in which revenue and service level are influenced. The second one is how participants can optimize revenue in coordination rather than competition. To answer to first question, firstly the participants, digital music service modes and channel modes are analyzed. Then considering the service level provided by telecom operator and service provider, two-partite and three-partite Stackelberg models are constructed to explore the four competitive modes, which are High Price without Service Provider (SP) Mode, "Low Price+Shared Revenue" without SP Mode, High Price with SP participation Mode and "Low Price+Shared Revenue" with SP participation Mode. Besides, optimal strategies in four modes are calculated and numerical analysis approach is adopted to explore the influence of different factors on the equilibrium results, which are digital music service production cost coefficient, revenue sharing ratio, user price sensitive factor and user service level sensitive factor. To find out solution to the second question, cooperative channel without SP participation mode and cooperative channel with SP participation mode are built to maximum the revenue of digital music channel participants. Finally two-partite and three-partite revenue sharing mechanisms basing on the participants' bargaining power are explored to achieve the optimal channel system revenue. This study finds that in the four competitive digital music channel modes, the participants competing with each other leads to revenue loss. Whether SP participates, digital music channel participants revenue and system revenue in High Price Mode are better than those in "Low Price+Shared Revenue" Mode. The optimal competitive mode is High Price without SP Participation Mode. To achieve channel coordination, if without SP participating, Telecom Operator (OP) and Content Provider (CP) formulate contract according to proportion k=1/4+?/4 to share revenue, otherwise CP, SP and OP share revenue according to proportion k,v

The Motion Picture Industry: Critical Issues in Practice, Current Research, and New Research Directions

The motion picture industry has provided a fruitful research domain for scholars in marketing and other disciplines. The industry has high economic importance and is appealing to researchers because it offers both rich data that cover the entire product lifecycle for many new products and because it provides many unsolved “puzzles.” Although the amount of scholarly research in this area is rapidly growing, its impact on practice has not been as significant as in other industries (e.g., consumer packaged goods). In this article, we discuss critical practical issues for the motion picture industry, review existing knowledge on those issues, and outline promising research directions. Our review is organized around the three key stages in the value chain for theatrical motion pictures: production, distribution, and exhibition. Focusing on what we believe are critical managerial issues, we propose various conjectures—framed either as research challenges or specific research hypotheses—related to each stage in the value chain and often involved in understanding consumer movie-going behavior

Mondadori, how to survive in the e-book era

Mondadori is the Italian market leader in the publishing industry, with a history of more than 100 years of experience in the field. The company headquartered in Milan, is the biggest book and magazine publisher in Italy and the third largest in the consumer magazine category in France. The book category currently accounts for almost 25% of the annual revenues and since the year 2010, the company started focusing also on the digital contents for books. The case study offers an overview of the market from both a global and a local perspective, with the focus on the Italian situation, where the main topics addressed are the competitive landscape, the digital growth and the digital piracy. This industry analysis is needed to show the environment where the company is working and to make understand possible threats and opportunities, like for example the new regulations on e-books arising through the new Italian government. The following chapters deal with an overview of the company, with a specific analysis on the strategic choices in the e-book market in the past, present and future. The purpose of the case is to provide the reader sufficient information to evaluate the three strategic alternatives offered and therefore he or she should be able to formulate a complete reasoning behind each of the three options. The first one is focused on reducing the price on e-book as a way to engage further the readers and the reader should be able to understand if such an option could be profitable for Mondadori or not; after that the suggestion is to think about an innovative way to exploit social media to reach out to new readers and to forecast future trends, especially in terms of authors. The last option presented, deals with the new trend of subscription models and the question is whether such a model, which worked successfully for the music ad film industries, can be valuable for publishing companies.A Mondadori é líder do mercado italiano na indústria editorial, com uma história de mais de 100 anos de experiência no ramo. A empresa, com sede em Milão, é a maior editora de livros e revistas em Itália e a terceira maior no segmento de revistas para o grande público em França. A categoria de livros é atualmente responsável por quase 25% das receitas anuais da empresa e desde o ano 2010, a Mondadori começou a concentrar-se também em conteúdos digitais para livros. O estudo de caso permite uma visão geral do mercado tanto do ponto de vista global como local, com um foco na situação italiana, onde os principais temas abordados são o cenário competitivo, o crescimento digital e a pirataria digital. Esta análise da indústria é necessária para mostrar o ambiente em que a empresa está envolvida e para entender possíveis ameaças e oportunidades, como por exemplo a nova regulamentação sobre e-books que surge através do novo governo italiano. Os capítulos seguintes contêm uma visão geral da empresa, com uma análise específica das escolhas estratégicas no mercado de e-books no passado, presente e futuro. O objectivo do caso é fornecer ao leitor informações suficientes para avaliar as três alternativas estratégicas apresentadas e, portanto, ele ou ela devem ser capazes de formular um raciocínio completo aquando a justificação de cada uma das três opções. A primeira é focada em reduzir o preço dos e-books como forma de envolver ainda mais os leitores e o leitor deve ser capaz de entender se tal opção poderá ser rentável para a Mondadori ou não; posteriormente, a sugestão é que o leitor pense numa forma inovadora de explorar as redes sociais de forma a chegar a novos leitores e prever tendências futuras, especialmente em termos de autores. A última opção apresentada trata da nova tendência de modelos de subscrição e a questão é se tal modelo, que foi bem sucedido nas indústrias de cinema e música, pode representar uma mais valia para editoras

A manifesto for the creative economy

The UK\u27s creative economy is one of its great national strengths, historically deeply rooted and accounting for around one-tenth of the whole economy. It provides jobs for 2.5 million people – more than in financial services, advanced manufacturing or construction – and in recent years, this creative workforce has grown four times faster than the workforce as a whole. But behind this success lies much disruption and business uncertainty, associated with digital technologies. Previously profitable business models have been swept away, young companies from outside the UK have dominated new internet markets, and some UK creative businesses have struggled to compete. UK policymakers too have failed to keep pace with developments in North America and parts of Asia. But it is not too late to refresh tired policies. This manifesto sets out our 10-point plan to bolster one of the UK\u27s fastest growing sectors

The relationship between copyright and contract law

Contracts lie at the heart of the regulatory system governing the creation and dissemination of cultural products in two respects: (1) The exclusive rights provided by copyright law only turn into financial reward, and thus incentives to creators, through a contract with a third party to exploit protected material. (2) From a user perspective purchases of protected material may take the form of a licensing contract, governing behaviour after the initial transaction. Thus, a review of the relationship between copyright and contract law has to address both supply- and demand-side issues. On the supply side, policy concerns include whether copyright law delivers the often stated aim of securing the financial independence of creators. Particularly acute are the complaints by both creators and producers that they fail to benefit from the exponential increase in the availability of copyright materials on the Internet. On the demand side, the issue of copyright exceptions and their policy justification has become central to a number of reviews and consultations dealing with digital content. Are exceptions based on user needs or market failure? Do exceptions require financial compensation? Can exceptions be contracted out by licence agreements? This report (i) reviews economic theory of contracts, value chains and transaction costs, (ii) identifies a comprehensive range of regulatory options relating to creator and user contracts, using an international comparative approach, (iii) surveys the empirical evidence on the effects of regulatory intervention, and (iv) where no evidence is available, extrapolates predicted effects from theory

THE TWO SIDES OF THE MUSIC STREAMING COIN: AN INNOVATION THAT BLESSED THE INDUSTRY BUT IS NOW TEARING IT APART.

openThis thesis revolves entirely around the topic of music streaming and its ambiguous impact on the music industry. The focus of the paper is the research question: How exactly has such an innovative phenomenon as music streaming shaped the blessed but problematic landscape of the music business industry that we can observe now? The research attempts to specify economic and common problems that this innovation brought to the complex network of the music business industry. Additionally, it explores how and which of the main agents and participants music streaming phenomena affected the most. The evolution of digital music consumption throughout history, as well as the factors that led to this, are analyzed in depth. The current situation of the music business industry in Europe and in the world, as well as the broad dominance of digital music, are presented to emphasize the relevance of music streaming in modern reality. Attention is also drawn to an analysis of the relations within music streaming, its main participants, together with their perception and attitude to innovation, and economic and legal aspects of the system. The main problem points identified are the issues of the music rights market, the remuneration of recording rightsholders and song rightsholders, and general problems of the music streaming platforms market. The main reason for the problems of the rights market is shown to be the sharp concentration and cross-ownership of rights which led to the dominance of the rights market by majors. Streaming technology legal classification issues, metadata peculiarities, and royalty chain length are identified among the main reasons for the problems with remuneration. The main troubles faced by the music streaming platforms market are safe harbor provisions in the law, monogamy of platform services, intense competition, and privacy concerns. The conclusion presents possible future trends for music streaming within the music industry business.This thesis revolves entirely around the topic of music streaming and its ambiguous impact on the music industry. The focus of the paper is the research question: How exactly has such an innovative phenomenon as music streaming shaped the blessed but problematic landscape of the music business industry that we can observe now? The research attempts to specify economic and common problems that this innovation brought to the complex network of the music business industry. Additionally, it explores how and which of the main agents and participants music streaming phenomena affected the most. The evolution of digital music consumption throughout history, as well as the factors that led to this, are analyzed in depth. The current situation of the music business industry in Europe and in the world, as well as the broad dominance of digital music, are presented to emphasize the relevance of music streaming in modern reality. Attention is also drawn to an analysis of the relations within music streaming, its main participants, together with their perception and attitude to innovation, and economic and legal aspects of the system. The main problem points identified are the issues of the music rights market, the remuneration of recording rightsholders and song rightsholders, and general problems of the music streaming platforms market. The main reason for the problems of the rights market is shown to be the sharp concentration and cross-ownership of rights which led to the dominance of the rights market by majors. Streaming technology legal classification issues, metadata peculiarities, and royalty chain length are identified among the main reasons for the problems with remuneration. The main troubles faced by the music streaming platforms market are safe harbor provisions in the law, monogamy of platform services, intense competition, and privacy concerns. The conclusion presents possible future trends for music streaming within the music industry business

Servitisation and value co-production in the UK music industry

Since the rise of music on the internet, record companies have reported falling sales of physical products. This has occurred at a time when technology has radically increased choice, availability and the opportunity for the consumer to purchase music. As the music industry has moved from a product to a service business model, has the loss of sales meant they have not taken their customers with them? This paper provides a description of different music consumers based upon quantitative analysis of consumer characteristics. The paper then undertakes an exploration of the relationship between the consumer groups and their purchasing preference in relation to intangible ‘service’ purchase such as downloaded music and the purchase of a tangible physical product such as CDs or vinyl. In addition, we analyse the relationship between consumer types and their propensity to actively engage with music communities, such as through engagement with social media, and thus their willingness to coproduce greater value. Finally we explore the moderating effects of age and time devoted to listening to music on purchasing preferences and music discovery