Consumer Responses to Legal Music Download Services that Compete with Illegal Alternatives

Several legal music download services, including some that are free (e.g., Spotify), are now available to consumers. These services may be viewed as "new service interventions" that could potentially change the mental models of consumers toward illegal file sharing and result in fewer downloads of illegal music files. We apply the theories of planned behavior and cognitive dissonance to articulate hypotheses regarding how such new services would change mental models of consumers for illegal music downloading. We test our hypotheses using data from two natural field experiments at a U.S. university and apply partial least squares estimation with difference-in-differences measures to test our hypotheses. We find that the introduction of legal music downloading services reduces the extent of favorable attitudes toward illegal file sharing and weakens the relationship between attitude and intent, because of which favorable attitudes toward illegal file sharing do not necessarily translate into a stronger intent to engage in illegal file sharing. However, these new services also strengthen the relationship between the perceived benefits of file sharing and reinforce their positive impact on intent to file share for those who engage in higher levels of illegal file sharing before using the new service. Our results suggest that it is important to introduce legal alternatives that are at least on par with the illegal alternatives in terms of their features and benefits, and to do so before too many consumers become used to the illegal alternatives.