Why consumers pay voluntarily: Evidence from online music

Tobias Regner

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2015, vol. 57, issue C, 205-214

Abstract: Customers of the online music label/store Magnatune can pay what they want for albums as long as the payment is within a given price range ($5–$18). On average, customers pay significantly more than they have to. We ran an online survey and collected responses from 227 frequent Magnatune customers to gain insights about the underlying motivations to pay more than necessary. We control for individual response- as well as sample selection-bias and find that reciprocity appears to be the major driver for generous voluntary payments. Being inclined to conform to social norms is a positive determinant for payments around the recommended price ($8).

Keywords: Social preferences; Pro-social behaviour; Music industry; Reciprocity; Guilt; Social norms; Altruism; Fairness; Social-image concerns; Survey; PWYW; Pay-what-you-want (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D03 D82 L82 L86 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Working Paper: Why Consumers Pay Voluntarily: Evidence from Online Music (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:205-214

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2014.10.006

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