Links between music piracy and live music

An under-researched phenomenon, how live music ties in with music piracy is the focus of this post.

Gayer and Shy (2006) argue that demand for live performances is reduced when piracy is prevented. Given the recent boom of interest in live music, and with the main source of income for artists generally being through live music (Connolly and Krueger, 2006), such an arguement would suggest that it is in the interests of musicians to give their music away for free.

However, not only do some genres not lend themselves particularly well to a live setting, but it isn't a viable alternative to profiting from recorded music. It is also environmentally unsustainable. Plus, recorded music sells live music. As an experience good, music must be heard and enjoyed before a fan will consider making a ticket purchase. Recorded music must first exist, and recording a good quality album is not free.

Mortimer, Nosko and Sorensen (2010) note the decline in album sales is greater for large artists than for small artists, where it is believed that part of the decline in profit from traditional sources may be counterbalanced by increased demand for complementary goods (consider Pearl Jams recent PJ20 series*). When you consider the concept of an artists stage in the game as also mediating how best to distribute music (as discussed in a previous blog post) and what you end up with is a complicated relationship between recorded and live music, but a relationship nonetheless.

And one which should be explored in more detail in future research.

Twitter feed now live @musicpiracyblog

References

 

Connolly, M. and Krueger, A.B. (2006). Chapter 20 Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music. Handbook on the Economics of Art and Culture, 1, 667‐719. 

Gayer, A. and Shy, O. (2006). Publishers, artists, and copyright enforcement. Information Economics and Policy, 18, 374-384.

Mortimer, J.H. Nosko, C. and Sorensen, A. (2010). Supply Responses to Digital Distribution: Recorded Music and Live Performances [working paper].#

Supplemental

* For lovingly in depth reviews of the PJ20 series, see the links below.

http://chaosintoorder.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/pj20-the-book/

http://chaosintoorder.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/pj20-the-movie-3/

http://chaosintoorder.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/pj20-the-soundtrack/

#Now published as a 2012 article.

Recommended books #2

Further to previous discussion on some readers having limited access to journal articles, please find below some more recommended books which you should be able to access.

Hinduja, S. (2006). Music Piracy and Crime Theory. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.

Higgins, G.E. and Marcum, C.D. (2011). Digital Piracy: An Integrated theoretical approach. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

The 2011 book is particularly recommended as it is not only most recent, but brings together theoretical underpinnings to piracy engagement. It's also a quick read.

The authors also have many relevant publications in open-access journals (free to view). Do a Google search and find their personal webpages which links you directly to them.

Occasional Tweetage @musicpiracyblog

Give Tweets a chance..

A careful look at the stats on this blog reveals almost 1000 page views a month, which is fantastic.

The whole point of this blog is to try and communicate research findings on music piracy to the general public and as such, the more hits the better. However, the accompanying Twitter account is not proving to be quite so popular. This is most likely my fault, as I'm not that into it and don't re-tweet or use hashtags very often. I'm usually too busy grooming or eating crisps.

If you follow this blog and also use Twitter, or know of a Twitter user who you think might be interested, add @musicpiracyblog to your 'following' list.

While the blog focusses on research, the Twitter account is more of a resource for directing you to links so you can read further on what other people are saying on the cultural, commercial and legal side of things.

Go on.

Give Tweets a chance.

Twitter feed online @musicpiracyblog with daily updates.

Special issues of major Journals dedicated to research on music piracy

And returning to a focus on why we are all here, research on music piracy, there is a Special Issue on Consuming the ‘Illegal’: Situating Online Piracy in Everyday Experience scheduled to appear in the February 2013 edition of the Journal 'Convergence'. See http://convergence.beds.ac.uk/ and http://con.sagepub.com/.

Looking forward to seeing what comes out of that. Keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime, why not check out the Special edition of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services on 'The Future of Music Retailing' from March last year? See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09696989/18/2.

There are some particularly excellent qualitative studies in there.

The fact that entire editions of major peer-reviewed Academic Journals such as those listed above are being committed to this issue is a testament to its popularity and prevalence in research circles.

Given that much research is directly and/or indirectly funded by the public, it seems only fair for the public to be informed of the findings of such research. In other words, click the links above! You will be able to read the abstract summaries of the studies at the very least.

Such an argument brings us neatly back to where we started and why this blog was created where discussion must still centre on how content is paid for - not whether or not it should have to be paid for. Knowledge isn't free and all that..

Twitter feed now live @musicpiracyblog with daily tweets.

Open-access article on Nine Inch Nails and how to make the most of the Internet to serve your fans

Turns out the Internet isn't necessary the enemy after all.

If you hop on over to the open-access Journal 'Empirical Musicology Review' you will be able to read an article titled 'Artist autonomy in a digital era: The case of Nine Inch Nails'. It goes into some depth on the recent marketing and distribution methods employed, critiquing Mike Masnick's (2009) business model of 'reason to buy' plus 'connect with fans' as accounting for the success enjoyed by Nine Inch Nails. Oh, and it was written by me.

An accessible read, it also has some take-home messages for new bands and how they can best achieve success in an increasingly segmented marketplace, with content on how different strategies work better for bands depending on their 'stage in the game'.

A PDF version of the article can be downloaded here.

If you haven't already seen it, watch Masnick's (2009) inspirational presentation linked above. The article won't make much sense if you haven't seen it.

Twitter feed online @musicpiracyblog with occasional Tweetage on all things music piracy

References

Brown, S.C. (2011). Artist autonomy in a digital era: The case of Nine Inch Nails. Empirical Musicology Review, 6(4), 198-213.

Masnick, M. (2009). How Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails Represent the Future of the Music Business.

Presentation given at 2009 Midem and Midemnet, Cannes, France.

Who is the most pirated artist in your area?

In case you missed it..

BBC Technology reporter Dave Lee's recent article discusses data collected from monitoring service Musicmetric as part of the inaugural digital music index. By monitoring the locations of BitTorrent users, the results shed light on downloading trends across the UK.

Ultimately, the data documents the overwhelming desire to illegally source recent music releases, where Lee speculates on the likely impact of broadband speeds and towns with large student populations as contributing towards the various downloading trends across UK cities.

If you click this link you will also be able to search for the most pirated artist in your area. Go on, have a look. SPOILER ALERT: In all likelihood, it will be Ed Sheeran.

The data collected is also available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license and can be accessed here.

Occasional Tweets @musicpiracyblog between meals, naps and major life events

Spotlight on predictive factors: Age

We've looked at gender.. now it's time to consider age.

And yup, you guessed it. It's those pesky youngsters who are more likely to engage in music piracy.

Honing in on just one key study, demographic factors were explored by Mishra, Akman and Yacizki (2006) where age and experience were defined as predictive factors of digital piracy.

Why might this be? Are older people merely less likely to engage in piracy as they lack computer experience? Or is there something more complicated going on?

Age as a predictor is far from a consistent finding, where the majority of studies have focussed on student populations. As such, the trend may be slightly skewed. Furthermore, not every study exploring age has come to the same conclusion. 

It does sound intuitive, where anecdotally, there are a few obvious reasons why music pirates may well be predominantly younger. You may be able to think of some new ones. 

The UK government certainly seems to be hung up on 'young people', with Lord Peter Mandelson (the then Business Secretary) stating: “The fact that young people now expect to download content for free is morally as well as economically unstable” (BBC, 2009).

What do you think?

Ask around. Do you notice any consistent age differences?

References

BBC (2009). Net pirates to be 'disconnected'. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8328820.stm 

Mishra, A., Akman, I. and Yazici, A. (2006). Software piracy amongst IT professionals in organizations. International Journal of Information Management, 26(5), 402-413.

Twitter feed online @musicpiracyblog with daily updates.