The rise of the LP: the politics of diffusion innovation in the recording industry (original) (raw)

Making the Mainstream Market: Organizational and Musical Change in the U.S. Recording Industry.

Doctoral Dissertation , 1996

The present study examines the dramatic changes that have occurred in the mainstream recording market -- the largest market for sound recordings in the U.S. Whereas a number of scholars explain market change by touting the emergence of new technologies or new competitors, this study develops an alternative explanation. Drawing on neo-institutional theory, it is argued that the impact of competition or technology is conditioned by the "commodity conception" held by market producers. This term refers to the widely-shared assessment of producers regarding the type of goods that are appropriate for their market. These conceptions entail more than consensus among market producers; they also provide the interpretive lens through which producers view their market. As a result, these conceptions shape the strategies that firms pursue. The first portion of this study documents the commodity conceptions that reigned in the mainstream from 1878 to 1896. Early market producers, for example, agreed that the phonograph should be leased for business dictation. As these early conceptions are analyzed, it comes clear that they shaped the manner in which competition occurred and the fashion in which new technologies were adopted. The second portion demonstrates how later commodity conceptions led dominant firms to shift from predatory strategies (i.e., seeking to eliminate competitors) to cooptive strategies (i.e., seeking to benefit from competition). This strategy shift had major implications for the operation of the mainstream market. Poisson and negative binomial analyses of new firms between 1940 and 1990 show that when dominant firms pursued predatory strategies, then increasing market concentration damped the number of new mainstream firms. When dominant firms pursued cooptive strategies, however, then increasing market concentration stimulated the number of new firms. Likewise, quantitative content analyses reveal that as dominant firms increasingly relied on cooptive strategies, the mainstream recordings became more musically diverse. Therefore, both sets of analyses demonstrate the theoretical point stressed at the outset: the impact of competition and technology is conditioned by the commodity conceptions -- and attendant strategies -- held by market producers.

“Selling less of more?” The impact of digitization on record companies

Journal of Cultural Economics, 2013

In this paper we use data from a survey of 151 French record companies to test the "long tail theory" at the level of the firm. More specifically, we test whether, following the "selling less of more" principle coined by , record companies that have adapted to digitization (at various levels: artists' scouting, distribution and promotion) release more new albums without having higher overall sales. We construct a production function in which the output is produced from conventional inputs of labor and capital, as well as inputs that are more specific to the recorded music industry. We consider two types of output: a commercial output (albums sales) and a creative output (number of new albums released). We show that labels that have adapted to digitization are more efficient in respect of creative output, but that there is no effect of adaptation to digitization on the commercial output, which is consistent with the predictions of the long tail theory.

Dynamics of popstar record sales on phonographic market -- stochastic model

2013

We investigate weekly record sales of the world's most popular 30 artists (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013). Time series of sales have non-trivial kind of memory (anticorrelations, strong seasonality and constant autocorrelation decay within 120 weeks). Amount of artists record sales are usually the highest in the first week after premiere of their brand new records and then decrease to fluctuate around zero till next album release. We model such a behavior by discrete mean-reverting geometric jump diffusion (MRGJD) and Markov regime switching mechanism (MRS) between the base and the promotion regimes. We can built up the evidence through such a toy model that quantifies linear and nonlinear dynamical components (with stationary and nonstationary parameters set), and measure local divergence of the system with collective behavior phenomena. We find special kind of disagreement between model and data for Christmas time due to unusual shopping behavior. Analogies to earthquakes, product life-cycles, and energy markets will also be discussed. 89.65.Gh, 05.10.Gg, 05.40.Fb, 89.65.Gh, 02.50.Ga, 47.27.tb

The Phonographic Industry and the Recorded Music Market: A Long Misunderstanding*

Drawing on research into the Portuguese phonographic industry, this article addresses the crisis which the industry is currently facing, with the aim of showing how the history of the phonographic field has, from the outset, been marked by various doubts and uncertainties emerging from disputes over a number of objects. It also shows that these doubts have always led to the reinvention of the conventions that have shaped the activities of this organisational and commercial field. Based on an analytical perspective that draws on the theoretical contributions of institutionalist economic sociology (Powell and DiMaggio, 1991; Fligstein, 1996 and 2001) and the economic sociology of conventions (Boltanski and Thévenot, 1991 and 1999; Thévenot, 2002), it discusses the dilemmas experienced by the industry, exploring the hypothesis that these have emerged as a result of the different orders of worth mobilised to coordinate activities in the phonographic field.

Increasing returns to information in the US popular music industry

Applied Economics Letters, 2007

Using data relating to 'number one' hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, we find clear evidence of increasing returns to information in the U.S. market for popular music. This evidence supports related findings for the motion picture industry in various countries, and for Broadway productions. * I am very grateful to Matt Giles for his assistance with data compilation. A spreadsheet containing the data-set is available from the author on request.

Chart Success and Innovation in the Music Industry: Does Organizational Form Matter?

Journal of Media Business Studies, 2008

In recent years, media industries are increasingly regarded as key settings for traditional organizations to draw lessons upon as far as innovation strategies are concerned, due to the structural changes they are witnessing, and to the high pace of introduction of new products. Our research addresses different innovation strategies by investigating the competitive dynamics in the launch of new artists in the US music market, between 1991 and 2005. Our results show that, in a creative setting affected by growing environmental turbulence, established firms (majors) tend to adopt an emerging organizational form, by establishing partnerships with independent organizations (indies), in order to systematically introduce new products. Our results also show that the partnership is a winning form only when it is specifically aimed at exploration, that is to say, when it refers to the launch of new albums by previously unpublished artist.

Music marketing A history and landscape

The marketing of music has undergone many changes. This paper undertakes a historical view of the development of music marketing. In addition, the paper provides a current landscape of the music marketing industry and the rapid changes occurring spurred on by new advances in technology.