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Pirates or Explorers ?Analysis of Music Consumption in French Graduate Schools

Author

Listed:
  • David Bounies
  • Marc Bourreau
  • Patrick Waelbroeck

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of music file sharing on CD purchases. Traditionally, two arguments are opposed concerning the impact of music file sharing on CD sales. On the one hand, MP3 downloads only reduces sales of legitimate CDs (the "competition effect"). On the other hand, consumption of free MP3s could lead people to buy CD which they would never have bought otherwise (the “sampling effect”). Because the court in the Napster case and some academic researchers have dismissed this sampling effect, this article seeks to assess whether sampling does indeed occur and in the affirmative what are the relative contributions of the positive sampling and the negative competition effects of MP3 files on CD purchases. To do so, we administered an anonymous online survey in two French graduate schools from May 26 to June 3, 2004. We find that there are two populations: explorers and pirates. For the explorers, MP3 downloading from P2P networks has a positive impact on CD consumption. For the pirates, anonymous file-sharing on the internet and intranets has a negative effect on CD consumption, while physical exchanges have a positive effect.

Suggested Citation

  • David Bounies & Marc Bourreau & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2007. "Pirates or Explorers ?Analysis of Music Consumption in French Graduate Schools," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 50(2), pages 167-192.
  • Handle: RePEc:bxr:bxrceb:2013/80196
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Mandel Philipp & Süssmuth Bernd, 2012. "Determinants of Digital Piracy: A Re-examination of Results," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 232(4), pages 394-413, August.
    2. Krawczyk, Michał & Tyrowicz, Joanna & Kukla-Gryz, Anna & Hardy, Wojciech, 2015. "“Piracy is not theft!” Is it just students who think so?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 32-39.
    3. Wojciech Hardy & Michal Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2015. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the link between "online piracy" and sales of cultural goods," Working Papers 2015-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    4. Joëlle Farchy & Mathilde Gansemer & Jessica Petrou, 2013. "E-book and book publishing," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse & Christian Handke (ed.), Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy, chapter 31, pages 353-364, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Stan J. Liebowitz & Richard Watt, 2006. "How To Best Ensure Remuneration For Creators In The Market For Music? Copyright And Its Alternatives," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 513-545, September.
    6. Rafael Rob & Joel Waldfogel, 2007. "Piracy On The Silver Screen," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 379-395, September.
    7. Waldfogel, Joel, 2010. "Music file sharing and sales displacement in the iTunes era," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 306-314, December.
    8. Waldfogel, Joel, 2009. "Lost on the web: Does web distribution stimulate or depress television viewing?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 158-168, June.
    9. Grazia Cecere & Nicoletta Corrocher & Fabio Scarica, 2012. "Why do pirates buy music online? An empirical analysis on a sample of college students," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(4), pages 2955-2968.
    10. Jonathan Dörr & Thomas Wagner & Alexander Benlian & Thomas Hess, 2013. "Music as a Service as an Alternative to Music Piracy?," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 5(6), pages 383-396, December.
    11. Godefroy Nguyen & Sylvain Dejean & François Moreau, 2014. "On the complementarity between online and offline music consumption: the case of free streaming," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(4), pages 315-330, November.
    12. Joel Waldfogel, 2012. "Music Piracy and Its Effects on Demand, Supply, and Welfare," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 91-110.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internet; Peer-to-Peer; File-Sharing; Piracy; Music; Students;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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