Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2013 in the subject
Sociology - Media, Art, Music, grade: 1, University of Bath, course:
Business Administration, language: English, abstract: The purpose of
this study is to assess how gender and cultural norms determine
student's motivation and willingness to pay for or to pirate music. To
reach a conclusion as to what sort of students engage in music piracy, a
university wide survey was performed and students from the UK and
international countries were surveyed. There is a need for such a study
as it will offer the music industry, marketers and educational
institutions an insight into the motivations behind music piracy in
university aged students and how their willingness to pay could be
determined by their own cultural norms. This in turn could lead to
strategies being created to combat music piracy in this age group and
demographic and revenues in the music industry to increase. This
importance of this topic has recently been highlighted in the 2012
report from the Institute for Policy Innovation which found that music
piracy brought about a loss of 71, 060 jobs in the US and an alleged
$12. 5 billion loss to the American economy and many believe piracy to
be the greatest threat facing the music industry worldwide. World sales
of recorded music fell by 7% in value and by 8% in units in 2002 and it
has been estimated that almost 40% of all the CDs and cassettes sold
around the globe in 2001 were pirated copies. While there are many
negative impacts of piracy, other studies argue that from an economic
and social standpoint piracy has ensured that more people can enjoy more
music at a cheaper cost and has increase net consumer welfare, and that
piracy ensures a continued interest and increased awareness or a wider
range of music and thus benefiting the industry firms in the long term
through increased revenue from concerts and festivals. The Music
industry, however, is strongly fighting individuals who either
