Are musicking and big data transforming the music industry? The French context

Our aim in this paper is to study habits, music preferences and evolution of music consumption in this context of dramatic technology changes and development of music analytics. We have applied our research to a specific population, i.e. young people studying in a French business school, who can be considered as Millennials or digital natives (Christian, 2010; Saldana, 2016). This paper is divided in two main sections. The first one is dedicated to a general overview of the music sector. Beyond the definition of the music industry and the data-driven analysis of the music market summarized in the next section, this paper seeks to present some perspective and insight on the main issues and challenges that the main players of the industry (‘traditional' firms and new entrants) of recorded music have to face. Based on the first section, the second section tries to answer several questions: How are "young people" currently consuming music in France? What do we know about Generations Y and Z and their media habits. Should we care, and if so, why? Do they go beyond listening (composing, performing, singing in the shower)? Music could be then considered as a broader activity known as musicking (Small, 1998). How do they analyze the impact of data analytics and the use of IOT in music on their own music consumption? Can links be made between musicking and the development of these new technologies? Through findings guided by this research question, this work has combined several academic disciplines of strategic management (business perspective) and cultural analysis.