Dang Nguyen, Dejean and Moreau (2012)
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Source Details
| Dang Nguyen, Dejean, and Moreau (2012) | |
| Title: | Are streaming and other music consumption modes substitutes or complements? |
| Author(s): | Dang Nguyen, G., Dejean, S., Moreau, F. |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Citation: | Dang Nguyen, G., Dejean, S., & Moreau, F. (2012). Are streaming and other music consumption modes substitutes or complements?. |
| Link(s): | Definitive , Open Access |
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| About the Data | |
| Data Description: | In the study the authors use a survey carried out among 2,007 French Internet users. 1,008 of them are representative of the French population and 999 are representative of the population of Brittany, a French region with 3 million inhabitants (5% of the whole French population). |
| Data Type: | Primary and Secondary data |
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| Country(ies): | |
| Cross Country Study?: | No |
| Comparative Study?: | No |
| Literature review?: | Yes |
| Government or policy study?: | No |
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Abstract
From a representative survey of 2,000 French individuals, we study whether consumption of music through streaming services, such as Spotify or YouTube, is a substitute or a complement to other music consumption modes such as CD, pay-downloads or live music. Controlling for the taste for music, various socio-demographic characteristics, as well as for the usual determinants of music consumption either offline (radio, TV, friends/relatives) or online (online recommendations, social networks), our results show that consuming music as streams (where the consumer does not possess the music but has just an access to it) has no significant effect on CDs purchase but is a complement to buying music online. The use of streaming services also affects positively live music attendance, but only for national or international artists who are more likely to be available on streaming services. These results suggest that a new music ecosystem is emerging in which the “possession” as well as the “access” modes of recorded music consumption might coexist.
Main Results of the Study
- The regressions show that STREAMING has no impact on CD sales. Furthermore, streaming does have a positive impact on live music attendance, as expected, but only on concerts by national or international stars. Hence, unlike file-sharing, streaming turns out to have no impact on physical recorded music sales but like file-sharing, streaming is complementary with attending concerts by national or international stars. The recursive model enables the authors to bring to light the indirect effect of explanatory variables on the attendance of concerts by international and national stars. For instance, the taste for music and the recommendation of friends exhibit both direct and indirect effects on concert attendance. Being young, an intensive Internet user and using the web to get information and advice on music all favour the practice of streaming and indirectly play a role in concert attendance. Conversely, being male and earning a large income only affect the INTER variable.
- Results concerning socio-economic variables are as expected. Individuals between 40 and 59 years-old buy more CDs. Age is also a strong determinant of attendance of classical concerts. Income and education are positively correlated with music consumption. Internet users in large cities have a higher probability of going to concerts of classical music or by local artists, which can be explained by the availability of these concerts in bigger cities. More surprising is the negative relationship between the local population size and the consumption of CDs in conventional offline retailers. One explanation might be that since access to live music is more difficult in less densely populated areas, the best way to obtain access to music content is to buy physical goods. It is also noted that the variable controlling for regional specificity also seems to capture a singularity for respondents from Brittany.
- The results support two major findings concerning the impact of streaming on music consumption. First, streaming has no effect on offline music sales. Second, streaming has a positive effect on attendance of concerts by national and international stars but not on concerts of classical music or by local artists.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
- Streaming platforms can help to provide new business models for artists and the music industry, in line with recent literature on the impact of digital piracy on ancillary markets and on the rise of a new contractual organization in the recorded music industry.
- The fact that streaming has no negative effect on recorded music but a positive effect on attendance of concerts by national or international artists represents an important difference from file-sharing. It suggests that streaming is an online medium that promotes music (like TV or radio broadcasting) and that reinforces rather than harms the music industry. Streaming services may be the missing link between the music industry and the digital revolution.
Coverage of Study
Datasets
| Sample size: | 2007 |
| Level of aggregation: | Individual |
| Period of material under study: | 2011 |
