L'impact d'Internet et des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication sur l'industrie de la musique enregistrée

The effect of the Internet and Information and Communication Technologies on the Record Industry In this paper, we analyze how the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and of the Internet affects the record industry. We show that the record industry is impacted in three different ways. Firstly, production and distribution costs of music have decreased sharply due to the progress made in ICTs, which has lowered the barriers to entry for music creation. Secondly, the information which is needed for the diffusion of music titles, which will call ?meta-information?, can now be used and produced by end consumers at low costs. Thirdly, the digitization of music makes it non rival from a technical point of view; a consequence is that music can be distributed on digital files and does not need discs or CDs as a vehicle any longer; finally, digital music files can be copied and shared on file-sharing networks. This analysis leads us to the conclusion that technical progress will modify the record industry in two respects; (i) the value which was contained in the music content will migrate towards the information needed to create and consume music (the meta-information); (ii) the management of meta-information will migrate from the mass media to the Internet (e.g., on amateur blogs, online retailers platforms, or websites of music creators).