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Preprints, Working Papers, ... Year : 2024

A geographical bias in a music streaming market

Marianne Lumeau
Ola Haampland
  • Function : Author
Rune Johannessen
  • Function : Author

Abstract

In cultural industries, the fear of large-country hegemon has been revived with the growth of subscription services (such as Netflix, Spotify or Apple Music) and the concentration of these markets. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on this issue from music streaming consumption. Using a unique dataset that encompasses both streaming and download consumption in France, a dynamic local music market representative of the global evolution, our results are as follows. At the top end, we find no difference between streaming and download consumption based on the recording artist’s geographical origin. Outside the top of the distribution, however, we observe that the US market share increases in the streaming model to the detriment of local (French) music. This advantage is even stronger for the US back catalogue (i.e., songs released at least ten years ago): the market share of a US song from the back catalogue is 34% higher when listened to on a streaming platform compared to when purchased as a download. These results are economically significant as non-chart and back catalogue songs cumulate a significant market share. From a second dataset of all the streams from a sample of French subscribers to a European music streaming platform, we show that the implementation of algorithmic recommendations by streaming platforms to guide users contributes to explain the dominance of US back catalogue. Altogether, these results document that streaming platforms introduce an American bias in music consumption.
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Dates and versions

hal-04570806 , version 1 (07-05-2024)

Identifiers

  • HAL Id : hal-04570806 , version 1

Cite

Marianne Lumeau, François Moreau, Ola Haampland, Rune Johannessen, Patrik Wikström. A geographical bias in a music streaming market. 2024. ⟨hal-04570806⟩
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