Live and prerecorded popular music consumption

Changing consumption habits have rearranged the popular music market in the last decade, and a pattern in which live music attendance gets an increasing share of the market has emerged. This work analyzes the demand for the popular music sector considering its double dimension as supplier of live concerts and prerecorded music. We use the 2006/2007 wave of Spain’s Survey on Habits and Cultural Practices, and estimate a bivariate probit model for attendance to live concerts and the purchase of prerecorded music. Results allow us to describe the profile of the average and frequent consumer in both markets, which shows some similarities—gender effects and the role of cultural capital—but also striking differences—time restrictions and relation to economic activity, and the use of technology. Finally, we find evidence of demand complementarities, with a direct causal link from prerecorded music to live attendance that helps explain recent institutional changes.     

The Adoption of the Compact Disk Player: An Event History Analysis for the Netherlands

The compact disk (CD) player was one of the major audio innovations of the 1980s in the Netherlands. For studies of the temporal and social diffusion pattern of the CD player and the compact disks, both cultural and economic theories about innovations and music consumption are available. In this paper, these theories are combined in six working hypotheses concerning earlier adoption. The empirical analysis includes both time-invariant and time-varying variables and consumer characteristics. Event history analysis, the technique used in this article, enables one to incorporate these kinds of variables simultaneously in a dynamic model. Compared with the diffusion models usually employed by means of longitudinal analysis, event history analysis is a significant improvement in studying the development of the CD market in the Netherlands.     

The prosumer economy and the sex industry: the creation of an online community of sex prosumers

ABSTRACT

In this article, I discuss how changes in the economic infrastructure of mass consumption have changed the values and attitudes of consumer culture. By focusing on an online community of Israeli sex consumers and applying the theoretical framework of the prosumer economy, this article suggests its innovative potential for understanding the intersections of cyberspace, capitalism, and sex work consumption. Using the context of the dynamic cultural terrain of prosumerism, the article examines how commercial way of thinking is encouraged, understood, and adopted by sex consumers in the practice of purchasing sexual encounters and sharing them online. The main argument is that the online community of sex consumers has become a collaborative project in which consumers simultaneously produce and consume – that is, they become ‘prosumers’ and thus occupy positions of power within the capitalist market-place. They, therefore, not only responding to market rules but also producing them. I claim that the change in the nature of the community has impacted both the nature of online writing and the way clients perceive sex workers.     

Determinants of cultural and popular celebration attendance: the case study of Seville Spring Fiestas

The Spring Fiestas in Seville (Spain) (SFS) are the most important cultural events in the city each year. The present paper pursues two aims. The first is to characterize the SFS as a new prototype of a complex cultural good that expresses the link between the people and the place in which they live based on material and immaterial cultural heritage represented through popular celebrations. The second goal is to conduct an empirical analysis of the determinants that shape attendance intensity by estimating a zero-truncated count data model using a unique dataset of attendees at the SFS in 2009. Findings indicate that attendance is strongly associated with variables reflecting knowledge, institutional links, past experiences, and the perceived external benefits generated by the existence of the SFS. The article contributes to the literature by exploring participation in popular celebrations, a field of inquiry that to date is extremely limited in cultural economics.     

The economic contribution of volunteerism toward the value of our cultural inventory

Scholars for centuries have been investigating and debating what determines the value of a good or service. However, the market has chosen to ignore what has been categorized as nonmarket transactions such as volunteerism. This paper will examine the economic contribution of volunteerism and its impact on our cultural inventory. Economic literature reveals three possible alternative methods to calculating the dollar figure for non-compensated volunteerism. They are Opportunity Cost Approach, Value-Added Approach, and Market Price Equivalency Model. Has cultural volunteerism contributed to cultural inventory by providing an expansion of our knowledge of the past and understanding the future?     

Rational addiction and cultural goods: the case of the Italian theatregoer

This paper tests whether demand for theatre in Italy is consistent with the model of rational addiction presented in Becker and Murphy (J Polit Econ 96(4):675–700, 1988). Data from a novel 34-year panel on regional annual theatre attendance are used to estimate market demand. Four models are applied to investigate the demand function, and all of these also include per capita income and other control variables as regressors. The first two models are estimated to check whether theatregoers are myopically addicted to theatre. The results suggest that the theatre is an addictive good because past consumption (and prices) significantly raises the marginal utility of current consumption. The third model tests the rational addiction hypothesis, which assumes that future attendance also influences current attendance, whilst past and future prices influence current attendance only indirectly through their impact on past and future attendances. However, our most highly specified model, introducing past and future prices, demonstrates that Italian theatregoers are not myopic but fully rational as outlined in Becker and Murphy (1988). The results demonstrate that the rational addiction hypothesis is applicable not only to “harmful” addictions such as alcohol, cigarettes and drug consumption, but also to “beneficial” addictions, such as theatre attendance. This result has important policy implications because theatre is one of the most subsidised performing arts in Italy; if theatregoers are fully rational, policy makers can influence theatre attendance using alternative policy instruments (price and income), thereby reducing government expenditure on theatre subsidies.     

On the complementarity between online and offline music consumption: the case of free streaming

From a representative survey of 2,000 individuals, we study whether consumption of music through streaming services, like Spotify or YouTube, is a substitute or a complement to physical music consumption modes, such as CDs and live music. Controlling for the taste for music, various socio-demographic characteristics and the usual determinants of music consumption either offline (radio, TV, friends/relatives) or online (online recommendations, social networks), our results show that free music streaming (where the consumer does not possess the music but only has access to it) has no significant effect on CD sales and affects positively live music attendance, but only for national or international artists who are more likely to be available on streaming services.     

The business of film music in mainstream Nollywood: competing without advantage

This article addresses the business of film music in mainstream Nollywood. It does so by focusing on the materiality of the industry as an institution: its social organisation and systems of film music production; markets; networks; and power relations. Specifically, the arguments rely on social organisational theories, and economic concepts such as vertical integration and market competition alongside inferences from interviews with insider-practitioners. Findings reveal that the Nollywood film music industry is characterised by non-institutionalised vertical integration within a perfectly competitive market in which its film music composers are, essentially, competing without advantage.     

Purchasing power parity and cultural convergence: evidence from the global video games market

A shared activity or pursuit can have the effect of bringing about cultural convergence in the form of patterns of behaviour and consumption. This idea is supported by the Axelrod (1997) thesis, which suggests that cultures are more likely to interact and subsequently converge if they have shared traits: one of these being the use of technology. This paper seeks to apply such a cultural perspective to the body of published literature on deviations from the law of one price. Adopting a similar methodology to the popular ‘Big Mac’ index, disparity between official market exchange rate and the real rate of exchange between two currencies is measured using local prices of video game consoles. The results of the study suggest that, while a degree of pricing and cultural convergence across broad geographic areas is observed, many major global currencies are trading at levels that are quite significantly different to that which is suggested by purchasing power parity (PPP) theory.

The dynamics of product differentiation in the British record industry

The paper conducts a statistical analysis of the dynamics of the sale of new music (product differentiation innovation) in the record industry. In pursuing this goal the paper generates new data and analyses a previously unutilized data set. The paper finds that there is a strong correlation between new music innovation in the audio singles and albums market. This is found to be mainly concurrent in the same quarter and to have a reasonably short product life. The paper discovers that these features also characterise the dynamics of record company performance. The research indicates that record companies are willing to sell singles at a loss due to advertising rather than learning externalities. At the industry level, the paper finds that new music innovation does not effect market size significantly and mainly causes business stealing effects between record companies, with exceptional cases of multiplier effects.     

International trade in cultural goods: A cross-sectional analysis

Both industrialized and developing countries have historically applied various trade barriers to protect their domestic cultural industries. International trade statistics show that highly populated countries such as the U.S. have exerted a general pattern of cultural influence over the rest of the world through export of films, music, books, and periodicals. The following empirical study suggests that trade barriers effectively increase the net export of cultural products. While domestic market size seems to factor significantly into the trade for films and prercorded music, protectionism based on the economies of scale argument does not find widespread support among cultural industries.     

Do cultural differences affect the trade of cultural goods? A study in trade of music

This study investigates the impact of cultural differences on trade decision and trade volume of cultural goods, using the data of traded music compact discs (CDs). According to ethnomusicological and civilization classifications, we classify countries into several groups and make novel variables that properly represent the cultural differences. We use the gravity model of trade proposed in Helpman et al. (The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(2):441–487, 2008), which is utilized to avoid selection and endogeneity biases of estimation. In addition, we exploit an identifying assumption on the types of consumers, so that one of the cultural variables can satisfy the exclusion restriction in our two-stage estimation procedure. Our empirical hypothesis is that the trade volume of music is larger between two countries with greater cultural familiarity. The empirical results show that cultural differences have significant influences on the trading decision and volume of music traded in addition to the traditional determinants of trade. This finding supports our hypothesis that cultural familiarity promotes the cultural goods trade.     

Cultural intermediaries in the making of branded music events: digital cultural capital in tension

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have overlooked how intermediaries and their digital cultural capital enhance the relationship between brand values and consumer identities; their specific uses of digital technologies; and how those uses are displayed in activities where intermediaries create consumer experiences. This paper thus explores the role that cultural intermediaries (music bloggers and an advertising agency) and their digital cultural capital play in making and communicating a branded music event. Briefly, intermediaries used a set of digital technologies (social media, guest lists, blogs, and websites) to create and orchestrate an authentic and exclusive experience between brands and consumers. We draw on empirical material from interviews and ethnographic work conducted in Santiago, Chile. Our study identifies digital technologies used by cultural intermediaries in communicating branded music events, including as: promotional tools; advertising campaign efficacy evaluation mechanisms; and relational objects that connect advertising agencies, music bloggers, brands, and consumers. By exploring the tensions and conflicts that arise among bloggers and advertising executives, we shed light on the uses and exchanges of digital cultural capital for commercial purposes, resulting from the connections between intermediaries that come from different fields of cultural production.     

Digitalizing consumer society: equipment and devices of digital consumption

ABSTRACT

This special issue of the Journal of Cultural Economy focuses on the digitalization of consumption and its social, cultural, ethical, political, and gendered implications. It thus answers the call for more research on how digital devices spread from the purely personal domain to multiple sociocultural domains. Through their use, new cultural practices have emerged between consumers and these devices, and devices and markets, that lead to change, in terms of consumer demand, consumption norms, and issues of ethics, culture, and power. Closely examining the role that devices play in consumption behavior enables us to address the supposed manipulative power of hi-tech companies, infrastructures, and systems at the global level, and the view ordinary market actors hold of digital appliances as empowering tools at the local level. The papers in this volume bridge ‘actor network theory' and ‘consumer culture theory' from the perspective of market ‘agencements.’ Ruckenstein-Granroth and Beauvisage-Mellet, and Arriagada-Concha focus on the device-mediated relationship between large digital market infrastructures and consumer behavior; Petersson McIntyre and Licoppe unveil the societal and cultural underpinnings of digitalized markets. Last but not least, Sörum and Soujtis address the political dimensions and implications of our new digital consumer equipment and society.     

Are workers in the cultural industries paid differently?

This article aims to explore wage differentials between employees in three sub-industries of the cultural industries compared with the main (1-digit level) industry to which they belong. We use data from the Wage Indicator Questionnaire 2001/2002, which includes information on 12,757 employees in the Netherlands. We find that workers in these particular sub-industries of the cultural industries are paid differently compared with their respective main industries. Workers in entertainment and publishing and printing (P&P) are less endowed with standard labour market characteristics. However, whereas workers in entertainment face negative price or evaluation-related effects, the opposite holds for workers in P&P. Workers in IT are more endowed with standard labour market characteristics, but they receive lower rewards for their labour market characteristics.     

Cultural goods creation, cultural capital formation, provision of cultural services and cultural atmosphere accumulation

The cultural atmosphere in a society is accumulated over time through the consumption of cultural services and is diminished through depreciation. Using cultural capital (e.g., cultural heritage, paintings, music scores), cultural services are provided by the cultural-services industry (e.g., museums, opera houses); cultural capital is enlarged by new cultural goods created by individuals. Individuals’ utilities are positively affected by the cultural services they consume, by the cultural goods they create and by the cultural atmosphere and the cultural capital accumulated in society. In a laissez-faire economy, individuals tend to ignore the positive external effects of their cultural-services consumption and creation of cultural goods on other individuals via accumulating cultural atmosphere and cultural capital. Consequently, suboptimally little cultural atmosphere and cultural capital will be accumulated. The efficient intertemporal allocation can be restored by introducing an appropriate subsidy that not only stimulates consumers’ demand for cultural services and the creation of new cultural goods but also enhances the accumulation of cultural atmosphere and cultural capital.

A Model of the Danish Book Market

Traditionally, books have been a majorfactor in the cultural life of a nation, although littleattention has been paid to the book market. In anattempt to redress this situation, a simple macromodel of the (Danish) book market is presented wheredemand, conventions in the publishing industry, andtechnology interact. The results are dramatic as thebook market has changed decisively in the past twodecades, in effect forcing us to reconsider what itmeans to publish and to be an author.     

Ethical consumption applications as failed market innovations: exploring consumer (non) acceptance of ‘quasi’ market devices

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I conceptualise ethical consumption applications (ECAs) as market innovations inflected in processes of configuring market actors and market (re)framings. The introduction of ECAs through the work of civil society is not only about changing frames of market exchange, but also work in the register of making ‘good consumers’ and consumers as ‘agents of change’ and moralising markets. Thus, a more accurate concept for these devices is suggested: ‘quasi’ market devices. The main aim of this paper is to analyse how consumers attached to and resisted use of ECAs designed to assist in product choices and shape responsible everyday practices. Based on qualitative fieldwork in Sweden, the article applies a methodology grounded in Science and Technology-inspired market studies in combination with Consumer Culture Theory’s (CCT) interest in identity work and sense-making associated with technology consumption. Although available at the time of the empirical data collection period of the study, all three apps were off the market during the analytic work of this paper; a major argument for focusing on barriers to acceptance of the apps and trying to conceptualise how such non-acceptance can be understood.     

A discrete choice model of consumption of cultural goods: the case of music

In this article we present an empirical analysis of the ‘patterns of cultural choice’ in the musical domain in Italy. The main goal of the article is to verify whether musical tastes in Italy are diversified, with the presence of a group of ‘cultural omnivores’. Our study is based on the theoretical model of the demand for cultural goods proposed by Lévy-Garboua and Montmarquette (1996). In the empirical analysis we simultaneously evaluate the probability of choosing different musical genres. Through the specification of the set of alternatives into three groupings of musical genres —“only classical music”, “only popular music” and “all music”—we were able to detect the relative impact of several socio-economic characteristics on the probability of having “univorous” or “omnivorous” musical likings. In addition, our approach allows us to verify the existence of different patterns of music consumption by testing the significance of differences among the estimated coefficients of the probability functions related to the three groupings of musical genres. We find that age, gender and education are important predictors of an omnivorous taste.

Specificities of the artistic cultural labor market in Brazilian metropolitan regions between 2002 and 2010

This paper analyzes the singularity of artistic cultural sector workers in the Brazilian metropolitan labor market, considering the job satisfaction of artists that Throsby proposes in his work preference model of artist behavior (1994). We also examine the effect of public expenditures on the income of workers in the cultural sector. Using 2002 to 2010 data from the Monthly Employment Survey (PME) and administrative records from Finance of Brazil (FINBRA), we estimate a probit model and a wage equation. In our model, we estimate wages as a function of: (1) sociodemographic characteristics of workers, (2) a variable for informal jobs, (3) the number of working hours, (4) a variable for the worker having another job, (5) per capita expenditures on culture interacted with a dummy for artistic cultural workers, (6) interactive binary variables involving place of residence and artistic cultural workers and (7) the predicted probability obtained by the probit model. This probability is estimated based on the likelihood of working in a creative activity, considering both workers from the cultural sector and other workers, controlled by: (1) sociodemographic characteristics of workers, (2) characteristics of their jobs, (3) dummies for the metropolitan regions and (4) willingness of creative workers to work additional hours interacted with the number of hours worked. Our results show that workers in the cultural sector are likely to work longer hours when compared to workers in other sectors. For our wage equation, the results suggest that women earn relatively less than men and blacks earn less than whites. Furthermore, earnings increase with age and the level of education. Formal workers obtain higher earnings when compared to informal ones. Finally, an increase in the per capita public expenditure on the cultural sector raises the income of workers in artistic cultural occupations.