Final Essay

ribution of copyrighted content on the Internet (Castro et al., 2009).

Among all the industries to be revolutionized by the rise of digital technology and the global network, the content industries, specifically the music, motion picture, print media and software industries, are the most affected (Sudler, 2013). The Internet and the spread of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have made the global distribution of content easier than ever (what Belk, 2014, calls Internet-facilitated sharing), causing a serious disadvantage for content producers and other players in the industries, since a vast proportion of the content shared via the Internet is either unauthorized or pirated (Robertson et al., 2012). Digital content products have high initial creation

The inception of Napster in 1999 and the consequent spread of file-sharing and peer-to-peer services revolutionized the music industry, causing a drop in sales of physical CDs (Zentner, 2005). In addition, the Internet made the MP3 search process much easier, allowing music seekers to obtain MP3 files with a simple mouse click while making their own music collection available for the community (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2007). Napster represented the transition from music ownership (property) to music access (gifting) (Giesler, 2006). This revolution represented, initially, a great challenge for the recording industry, since file sharing considerably weakened effective copyright protection. In early 2001, when Napster’s popularity reached its apex, almost all music played on the radio and many older tunes were available for free download (Langenderfer and Cook,

This relatively new, legal tool, offers millions of songs on streaming and for download from different record labels for less than 10$/€ a month. Such services seem to be a viable alternative to online music piracy, as they have different tiers of offers and allow consumers to listen to hours of music without the need to purchase individual songs.

In some European countries, such as Sweden, the Netherlands and France, where, for example, the subscription-based music services Spotify and Deezer are now a consolidated reality (with awareness levels ranging between 75%-96%), online music piracy rates have significantly diminished (i.e. down by 4% in the Netherlands as of December 2012) (IFPI, 2013). In Sweden alone, 89% of Spotify subscribers have greatly reduced their illegal downloading of music (IFPI, 2014). The challenge is therefore to understand how these services are extendable to other countries where they are less common, and to study potential attitudes, interests and behaviors of consumers towards these new services. Delineating a profile of the consumers that are more prone to piracy and those who are more willing to try legal alternatives, like subscription-based music services, could be very helpful for companies