Aditya Trivedi
English-149
Internet Culture Bibliography
Bhattacharjee, Sudip. "Do Artists Benefit from Online Music Sharing?" Journal of
Business Ethics. 79.3 (2006): 1503-1533. Web. 17 Jul. 2013.
<http://www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/tools/practice/details.jsp?id=780>.
As seen by the straightforward title, this scholarly journal article studies consumer
benefits as well as music star benefits or struggles from online music sharing. The major
part of this story showed that decreased costs in sampling, whether monetary or legal,
lead to consumers sampling music as well as downloading music through online sharing
methods. Another important fact found in this research article was that superstars in the
music industry were usually hurt the most financially through online music sharing as
well as the sampling of their music. This is because sampling of expensive superstar
music leads to piracy whereas less expensive sampling of lesser-known artists means
those artists climb up the charts quickly, thus bringing competition for well-established
stars. The aspect of online music sharing threatening well-established stars as compared
to regular artists is something that I want to incorporate into my video. It appeared before
that regular or struggling stars would struggle more with online music sharing, but this
article suggests that their music would be spread much quickly due to it’s low cost/free
cost. I wanted to add this aspect as a possible benefit/consequence of online music
sharing in my video.
Grobecker, Jim. "How Artists Can Profit From File Sharing." Music Think Tank. N.p., 11
Jan 2011. Web. 19 Jul 2013. <http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/how-artistscan-profit-from-file-sharing.html>.
This article was actually from a music think tank website and talked about how artists can
benefit from file sharing. After starting off with a general introduction about how music
will continue to be shared through free file sharing platforms, it goes into depth about
different ways artists can use these platforms to increase their fan base and eventual
wealth. While it went through about 5 different ways artists can benefit, the major
technique bought up was to have file-sharing networks with inbound links that can lead
users of the file sharing sites to your music site. “Great albums earn artists inbound links”
according to this article, which will lead to furthering an unknown artist’s fan base as
well as increase their wealth through ticket sales, CD sales and memorabilia sales. This
article also talked about Girl Talk, a popular mash up artist, who gained success through
free album downloads. By letting having album as a free download, he gained a huge
following and got inbound links on major file sharing sites, which in turn led to an
increase in revenue in sales of his concerts and records. This was also impacted by his
mentions on social media and Google searches, which further justify how lesser known
artists can become more successful than established artists who have expensive samples
or CDs. I wanted to use these facts in my video to further justify my point that well
established artists potentially suffer more than lesser known artists in regards to online
music sharing. I want to use the information in a mini case study I include that compares
album sales and popularity between a musician who released their music digitally/free
versus one who did not do either.
Aditya Trivedi
English-149
Internet Culture Bibliography
Jaisingh, Jeevan. "Piracy on File-sharing Networks: Strategies for Recording
Companies." Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce.
17.4 (2007): 329-348. Web. 18 Jul. 2013.
<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10919390701636239
This scholarly research article studies how selling downloadable files affects piracy and
also reflects on different strategies record companies can use to increase profits. The
study found that piracy was lower in cases where the firm sells downloadable versions of
their albums and that revenue also decreases when firms try increasing album protection.
This article also explained that with increased digital rights management (DRM), firms
need to find a way to charge lower prices on albums in order to make their efforts of
protecting their music economically feasible. The fact that this is so hard to do plays well
into my thesis that online music sharing helps lesser - known artists while somewhat
hurting well -known artists who may not be up to date with digital sharing and online
music platforms. Well established companies according to these studies are much more
likely to increase DRM which will in turn lead to less sales due to higher CD costs. I
want to implement the facts that I found in this study for the purpose of proving this
point.
Lyke, Allison. "How File Sharing Affects Music." Suite 101. Suite 101, 25 Mar 2013.
Web. 18 Jul 2013. <http://suite101.com/article/how-file-sharing-effects-musica179118>.
This article goes into depth over how file sharing affects the music industry
economically. By making recordings public domain, CD sales have gone down for a
majority of record labels while illegal P2P file sharing has grown in the underground
illegal market. This article argues that by implementing access provisions to ensure legal
delivery, less illegal downloading will occur. The access providers will receive a small
share of earnings from the content, which will lead recordings to be increased in price. I
thought this was an interesting point to include in my article because by owning not only
the content but also the access points of recordings, CD costs will go up considerably
which might not help popular artists stay afloat in CD sales. By decreasing illegal
activity, the music industry will essentially have to increase record prices, which I think
works against popular artists who have not adapted to the digital age of music in regards
to free samplings of mix tapes. This argument is essential to my research video and this
article provides a venue that argues for legal downloading while not exactly providing a
feasible financial option in decreasing it. Thus in conclusion, while provisions can be
made to stop downloading at access points, it will cost record companies more money
and thus increase the already high prices of CD’s and records. This is not a feasible
option financially because consumers will try finding other ways to get cheaper or free
music.
Mulligan, Mark. "Why the Music Industry Must Change Its Strategy to Reach Digital
Natives." Mashable. Flickr, 04 Feb 2011. Web. 18 Jul 2013.
<http://mashable.com/2011/02/04/music-industry-digital-natives/>.
Aditya Trivedi
English-149
Internet Culture Bibliography
This article by Mark Mulligan gravitates around the shift in music listening and the death
of the CD and how the music industry can change its strategy to reach the future
generations who have don’t know of life before the digital age. The article stresses that
future musicians must follow the SPARC acronym of social, participative, accessible,
relevant and connected aspects in consumer sharing. By taking advantage of these
different aspects when releasing their music, this article argues that future musicians will
be able to meet emerging and changing consumer demand. The information provided in
this article will be useful in my video as it explains how popular artists can still remain
relevant and popular despite not having as cheap of samples as up and coming artists. The
article provides a method for a paradigm shift in the way music is presented to consumers
so that musicians can combat consumer demand from “digital natives” or those who have
only lived during our new digital age.