| By: |
Luis Aguiar (European Commission – JRC - IPTS);
Bertin Martens (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: |
The goal of this paper is to analyze the behaviour of digital music consumers
on the Internet. Using clickstream data on a panel of more than 16,000
European consumers, we estimate the effects of illegal downloading and legal
streaming on the legal purchases of digital music. Our results suggest that
Internet users do not view illegal downloading as a substitute to legal
digital music. Although positive and significant, our estimated elasticities
are essentially zero: a 10% increase in clicks on illegal downloading websites
leads to a 0.2% increase in clicks on legal purchases websites. Online music
streaming services are found to have a somewhat larger (but still small)
effect on the purchases of digital sound recordings, suggesting
complementarities between these two modes of music consumption. According to
our results, a 10% increase in clicks on legal streaming websites lead to up
to a 0.7% increase in clicks on legal digital purchases websites. We find
important cross country difference in these effects. |
| Keywords: |
Digital Music, Copyright, Downloading, Streaming, Piracy on the internet |
| JEL: |
K42 L82 L86 Z1 |
| Date: |
2013–02 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:decwpa:2013-04&r=cul |