A New Era for the Music Industry: How New Technologies and the Internet Affect the Way Music is Valued and have an Impact on Output Quality

Abstract

Since its early days, the Internet has been used by the music industry as a powerful marketing tool to promote artists and their products. Nevertheless, technology developments of the past ten years, and especially the ever-growing phenomenon of file sharing, have created the general impression that the Internet is responsible for a crisis within the industry, on the grounds that music piracy has become more serious than it has ever been. The purpose of this paper is to present the impact of new technologies and the Internet on the three main actors of the music industry: consumers, artists and record companies. It is claimed that the Internet has changed the way music is valued, and also, that it may have a direct effect on the quality of the music produced, as perceived by both artists and consumers alike.

Key words: Digital economy, Internet, copyright, Game theory, Imperfect information.
JEL: A10, C73, D80, O33, O34.