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Increasing Returns to Information in the U.S. Popular Music Industry

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Abstract

Using data relating to ‘number one’ hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, we find clear evidence of increasing returns to information in the U.S. market for popular music. This evidence supports related findings for the motion picture industry in various countries, and for Broadway productions.

Suggested Citation

  • David E. Giles, 2005. "Increasing Returns to Information in the U.S. Popular Music Industry," Econometrics Working Papers 0510, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    • Handle: RePEc:vic:vicewp:0510
    Note: ISSN 1485-6441
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    17. Chris Hand, 2001. "Increasing returns to information: further evidence from the UK film market," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(6), pages 419-421.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jordi McKenzie, 2010. "Movie producers and the statistical distribution of achievement," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(17), pages 1657-1661.
    2. Brinja Meiseberg, 2014. "Trust the artist versus trust the tale: performance implications of talent and self-marketing in folk music," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 9-42, February.
    3. Gaffeo, Edoardo & Scorcu, Antonello E. & Vici, Laura, 2008. "Demand distribution dynamics in creative industries: The market for books in Italy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 257-268, September.
    4. Ivan Pitt, 2010. "Superstar effects on royalty income in a performing rights organization," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(3), pages 219-236, August.
    5. Caroline Elliott & Rob Simmons, 2011. "Factors determining UK album success," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(30), pages 4699-4705.
    6. Giles, David E., 2006. "Superstardom in the US popular music industry revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 68-74, July.
    7. Yi, Jisu & Lee, Youseok & Kim, Sang-Hoon, 2019. "Determinants of growth and decline in mobile game diffusion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 363-372.
    8. Philip Hans Franses, 2023. "On the life cycles of successful rock bands," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 4693-4707, October.
    9. Pablo Bello & David Garcia, 2021. "Cultural Divergence in popular music: the increasing diversity of music consumption on Spotify across countries," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, December.
    10. W. Walls, 2010. "Superstars and heavy tails in recorded entertainment: empirical analysis of the market for DVDs," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(4), pages 261-279, November.
    11. JORDI McKENZIE, 2009. "Illegal Music Downloading And Its Impact On Legitimate Sales: Australian Empirical Evidence," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 296-307, December.
    12. Staffan Albinsson, 2013. "Swings and roundabouts: Swedish music copyrights 1980–2009," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(2), pages 175-184, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Popular music; returns to information; Gibrat’s law; Zipf’s Law; Pareto’s law; stable distribution; Bose-Einstein dynamics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C4 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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