Purchase, Pirate, Publicize: Private-Network Music Sharing and Market Album Sales

Jonathan Lee ()

No 274680, Queen's Economics Department Working Papers from Queen's University - Department of Economics

Abstract: I quantify the effects of private-network music sharing on aggregate album sales in the BitTorrent era using a panel of US sales and private-network downloads for 2,109 albums during 2008. Exogenous shocks to the network's sharing constraints address the simultaneity problem. In theory, private- network activity could crowd out sales by building aggregate file sharing ca- pacity or increase sales through word of mouth. I find evidence that private- network sharing results in decreased album sales for top{tier artists, though the economic impact is quite modest. However, private-network activity seems to help mid{tier artists. The results are consistent with claims that word of mouth is stronger for lesser-known artists and that digital sales are more vulnerable to increases in file sharing capacity. I discuss policy implica- tions and alternatives to costly legal efforts to shut down private le sharing networks.

Keywords: Financial; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-ipr
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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/274680/files/qed_wp_1354.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Purchase, pirate, publicize: Private-network music sharing and market album sales (2018)
Working Paper: Purchase, Pirate, Publicize: Private-network Music Sharing And Market Album Sales (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:quedwp:274680

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.274680

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