Towards a music streaming economy – Scandinavia part 1

It’s no accident that Spotify was launched in Sweden during the culmination of the The Pirate Bay lawsuit in 2008. Spotify was promoted as the legal alternative to P2P files haring and the Swedish music consumers were the perfect test market for such a Freemium music service. Sweden’s neighbouring country Norway was in a similar position: wealthy inhabitants, a high penetration of broadband Internet access and a passion for music. Therefore, the Swedish digital entertainment company Aspiro launched the music streaming provider WiMP (the later Tidal) in cooperation with the Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor and music retailer Platekompaniet in Norway in February 2010. Two months later WiMP also started in Denmark as the first music streaming service for PC, Mac and Android mobile.[1] However, in December 2009, the Danish telco TDC had added an unlimited streaming option to its music download service TDC Play (now YouSee Musik) in cooperation with tech company 24-7 Entertainment.[2] Thus, all three Scandinavian countries were pioneers in establishing a music streaming economy. The fourth Scandinavia country, Finland, lagged behind for some years, but in 2017 the Finnish sound recording market was as streaming-lined as its Scandinavian neighbours.

 

Figure 1: The global phonographic market in 2017 by digital market shares

Source: After IFPI Global Music Report 2018.

 

A series of blog entries tells the story of how the Scandinavian countries have become the forerunners of the music streaming economy and highlights the background of this development. In this blog post a comparative analysis of market figures for all Scandinavian countries are presented.

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Is Streaming the Next Big Thing? – An International Market Analysis

After years of recession optimism is back in the phonographic industry. In the current Recording Industry in Numbers by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI 2013) the first but small increase of 0.9 percent in global recorded music sales were reported since 1999.The decreases in CD sales and in other physical formats could be compensated by increases in digital music sales. The revenue streams of music streaming services seem to play a crucial role in the recovery. Spotify, Deezer & Co. report annually growing number of users, which makes streaming the fastest growing segment in the phonographic market.

In a series of blog posts entitled “Is Streaming the ‘Next Big Thing’?” I would like to highlight the boom of music streaming services and their business models. But I also ask whether and how labels and publishers as well as artists benefit from the growing streaming music market. In part 1 the development of the digital music market in different countries with special regard to the music streaming market is analysed in detail.

Book Review: Music Business and the Experience Economy. The Australasian Case

“Music Business and the Experience Economy” is the first book on the music business in Australasia from an academic perspective. In a cross-disciplinary approach, the authors deal with a wide-range of topics concerning the production, distribution and consumption in the digital age. The interrelationship of legal, aesthetic and economic aspects in the production of music in Australasia is also highlighted as well as the emergence of new business models, the role of music file sharing, and the live music sector. In addition, the impact of the digital revolution on music experience and valuation, the role of music for sports and branding, and last but not least the developments of tertiary music education, are discussed from different perspectives.

Peter Tschmuck, Philip L. Pearce and Steven Campbell (eds.), 2013, Music Business and the Experience Economy. The Australasian Case. Heidelberg & New York: Springer, ISBN: 978-3-642-27897-6.

For a more detailed book review please click here for further reading.

How Bad is Music File Sharing? – Part 25

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the EU Commission recently published a study entitled “Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data” with remarkable results. The authors, Luis Aguiar and Bertin Martens, concluded that music file sharing as well as music streaming have a significant positive impact on legal music downloads. The study is based on Clickstream data from Nielsen NetView. The database contains all the clicks of 25,000 Internet users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom for the calendar year 2011. In the following the main finding “(…) that digital music piracy does not displace legal music purchases in digital format” will be further investigated.

Music Experience and Behaviour in Young People in the UK

The study Music Experience and Behaviour in Young People is the third survey of its kind – after 2008 and 2009 – for 2011. After a presentation of the key findings of the study in the 3^rd Vienna Music Business Research Days, it’s now an honour and pleasure to exclusively present the results of the current study on the blog. The 2011 study is based on a comprehensive online survey of 1,888 of 14-24 year olds across the UK. The main conclusion of the current research is “(…) that when it comes to music and young people, everything is different, and yet everything is still the same”; compared to 2008 and 2009.

The key findings of the 2011 study are:

• The computer is no longer their main entertainment hub.
• Digital music collections are still huge.
• Digital music collections still contain 50 percent “free” music.
• Ownership is still important.
• Music is no longer the most popular entertainment type.
• There remains a very clear “value gap”.
• The popularity of file sharing has changed significantly.
• The 14-25 years olds are prepared to pay for digital music.
• But there are still challenges for streaming music online.
• Digital music consumption is still complex.
• They have a clear understanding and grasp of what copyright law is.

Please read further if you want to know more about the research results.

The Second “Vienna Music Business Research Days” in Retrospective

The second “Vienna Music Business Research Days”, which were held at the University of Music and Performings Arts Vienna from June 8-10, 2011, were devoted to “New Music Distribution Models”. Therefore, the economic potentials, which are involved in the new music distribution models, were highlighted. In addition, the impact of music downloading, music streaming and cloud-based music models on musicians and music consumers was also discussed.

Beyond the speeches and panel discussion with music industry experts, a young scholars’ workshop was organized the first time. PhD and master students presented the results of their research on “Innovations in Music Business” and discussed them with advanced academics in this field.

In the following summary of the second “Vienna Music Business Research Days” most of the speeches and discussion of June 8-9 can be downloaded in audio format, in printed version and as presentations.

Vienna Music Business Research Days 2011

On June 8th, the second Vienna Music Business Research Days on “New Music Distribution Models” will start at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Vienna). The main question, who profits from the new models of music distribution – downloading, streaming, cloud-music, will be  highlighted from different perspectives by international music business experts until June 1oth. For the program, please visit our conference webpage, where you also can download the conference folder.

The panel discussion in the evening of June 8th on the question “Is Streaming the answer …?” (in German) as well as the whole conference day on June 9th will be live streamed on the Internet: mms://mms.mdw.ac.at/musikwirtschaftsforschung_live 

Music Experience and Behavior in Young People in the UK – a workshop presentation

On 17 January 2011 Dennis Collopy and David Bahanovivh from the University of Hertfortshire presented the results of the panel study on “Music Experience and Behavior in Young People” in a workshop at the Institute of Culture Management and Culture Studies at University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Until now results are available for 2008 and 2009, but the next wave of interviews will be conducted in spring 2011.

Music Experience and Behavior in Young People, Survey results 2008

Music Experience and Behavior in Young People, Survey results 2009

Presentation of the 2008 and 2009 results 

In the following the results of both studies will be highlighed:

How Bad Is Music File Sharing? – Part 17

Michel’s working paper is based on 4 chapters of his dissertation thesis entitled “A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the Impact of the Digital Age on the Music Industry”. In addition two articles in the Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues are also based on the findings of the dissertation thesis. Michel constructed a model of interactions between artists, record labels, and consumers, which suggests that file sharing may have been undertaken by consumers who were previously not in the market for music. In order to test his model, Michel provided evidence, based on Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data, that “(…) file sharing decreased CD sales by about 4 percent, though the estimate is statistically insignificant” (Michel 2005: 30).

How Bad Is Music File Sharing? – Part 14

In his 2006 working paper Lee investigated how price and free music availability jointly affect the consumer’s willingness to buy and how price and non-price factors (rating of singers, genre preferences, number of songs on CDs, and music consumption style) change the “free” vs. “non-free” Internet availability conditions. The results of a survey of about 500 students of Korea University in Seoul indicate that there is a weak interaction of CD prices and free music availability, whereas in the non-free Internet availability situation price has a significant effect on consumer purchasing patterns for some CDs. More can be read here: