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The Economics of P2P File-Sharing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the give-and-take dept.

brajesh writes "Does P2P file-sharing really affect music sales and in what ways? According to a blog entry at "The Long Tail", a paper from David Blackburn[.pdf], a Harvard PhD student, on the economics of P2P file-sharing concludes that it does indeed depress music sales overall. But the effect is not felt evenly. The hits at the top of the charts lose sales, but the niche artists further down the popularity curve actually benefit from file-trading. Form the paper - "Artists who are unknown, and thus most helped by file sharing, are those artists who sell relatively few albums, whereas artists who are harmed by file sharing and thus gain from its removal, the popular ones, are the artists whose sales are relatively high." But then "File sharing is reducing the probability that any act is able to sell millions of records, and if the success of the mega-star artists is what drives the investment in new acts, it might reduce the incentive to invest in new talent. This is, at its heart, an empirical question which is left to future work." There is also another compilation of studies on economics of P2P."

4 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. but here it is, the article by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Informative

    the headline says it's provable: Harvard PhD student, on the economics of P2P file-sharing concludes that it does indeed depress music sales overall

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  2. Re:A brutal dictatorship put first man in space by damiangerous · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not talking about the cosmonauts. I'm talking about the "little people" on the ground. Plesetek was the site of at least 3 fatal accidents, one of them a Soyuz explosion that killed at least 50 people. There was also the Nedelin disaster that killed 126 people. Although that was later discovered to be an ICBM accident rather than a rocket the concepts are very much the same. The Soviet system being what it was, I don't think those people had too much choice in their jobs. When you have to apply for a permit to get a new apartment or move between towns your options are rather limited.

  3. Arctic Monkeys by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 2, Informative
    A band called The Arctic Monkeys recently had a number 1 in the UK as a result of engagement via the internet and giving away music in that way.

    It's now shown that it can be done.

    It's also one of the few number 1s that I'd rate as a fine single in about a decade.

  4. Re:the industry has their priorities wrong by Vantage13 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sadly, Sanctuary is a member of the RIAA