Does digitization lead to the homogenization of cultural content?

Marc Bourreau, François Moreau and Patrik Wikström
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Patrik Wikström: QUT - Queensland University of Technology [Brisbane]

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Abstract: Using weekly music charts data in ten countries over the period 1990 to 2015, we analyze whether digitization leads to a trend of homogenization of music content or conversely to a greater acoustic disparity within music charts. Acoustic diversity measures the variance of a set of songs calculated across the following acoustic attributes: danceability, speechiness; valence; liveness; acousticness; energy; instrumentalness; loudness; tempo; duration. We consider the pre-digitization period (1990-1999) and split the digitization era in four periods: (1) the period characterized by unsanctioned music distribution via filesharing networks; (2) the launch of iTunes Music Store; (3) the emergence of social network services as powerful tastemakers; and (3) the emergence of global music streaming services, such as Spotify, as the dominant model for online music distribution. Our main result is that while acoustic diversity decreased during the iTunes and the YouTube periods, the period that begins with the introduction of audio streaming services, such as Spotify, represents a turning point and is marked by a significant increase in acoustic diversity.

Keywords: Music industry; Digitization; Content disparity; Cultural diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-01
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://telecom-paris.hal.science/hal-03861868v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Economic Inquiry, 2022, 60 (1), pp.427-453. ⟨10.1111/ecin.13015⟩

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Journal Article: Does digitization lead to the homogenization of cultural content? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03861868

DOI: 10.1111/ecin.13015

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