Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Economics and University Honors

Department

Economics

First Advisor

James Woods

Subjects

Music and the Internet, Streaming audio -- Public opinion, Willingness to pay, Consumer behavior, Consumers -- Attitudes, Piracy (Copyright) -- Moral and ethical aspects

DOI

10.15760/honors.423

Abstract

This study analyzed how consumers evaluate online music streaming services through a discrete choice survey. A multinomial logit model was applied to estimate how important varying levels of price, artist welfare, and advertisements were to consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a monthly subscription service to a digital music catalogue. The survey was administered online, with 100 total valid samples. Respondents viewed the morality of copying and distributing copyrighted digital music as different from the physical theft of private property. The most important factors in deciding a respondent’s WTP for service were: the welfare of the artists who list their music on the website, whether the service had advertisements, and the household income of the respondent. Consumption characteristics such as how much a respondent spends on music a month, or how much time they spend listening to music did not have a discernible effect on their WTP.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/20429

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