DIGITIZATION OF MUSIC INDUSTRY, HOW NEW TECHNOLOGIES HAVE CHANGED SUPPLY CHAIN AND CONSUMER’S BEHAVIOUR.

Abstract

Within entertainment and media industry, music industry is the most affected by technological innovations, basically because music distribution is a matter of formats. Until few years ago a common belief was that the internet was killing the music industry. The industry failed to keep pace with technology for many years, meaning consumers turned to illegal downloading for the sake of price and convenience. The early solutions offered by music companies enjoyed some success but were always obstruct by digital rights management and device compatibility. Streaming services offered a solution with the potential to overcome both of the main advantages of illegal downloading: price (Spotify and YouTube are at some extent free) and convenience, tunes can be immediately streamed to any device at any time. This study aims to provide a broad overview of the historical and actual music industry and an analysis of the role of record labels and music providers/distributors and changes of consumer’s behaviour. Spotify business model and its role in the industry will be analysed. Data analysis from a quantitative research conducted on consumer behaviours related to on-demand music (Spotify in this case), with the main purpose of discover when and where the consumer experiences music and which device prefer to use. It will be analysed the possible future opportunities of the industry with the implementation of Big data and the introduction of IOT.