My Academic Paper

I’m currently producing an academic paper centered on a report. My report is grounded by this question, Has the internet signaled the end for traditional music sales? Based on the journals and reports that I have discovered, many have concluded that the internet has signaled the end of traditional music sales. (The Internet is Changing The Music Industry) states that, with powerful search engines (Napster, BearShare) consumer can find songs quickly without the aid of retailers. This new distribution channel, if widely accepted and practiced threatens to do away with middleman in traditional distribution channels. (The Effects Of Changing Technology and Government Policy on the Commercialization of Music) asserts, The marriage of digital recording and Internet song swapping particularly exacerbated the industry’s piracy problems. A duopoly was created when members of the recording industry partnered with Internet portals to create an “on demand” subscription based music delivery model, a move which has the potential to impact the commercialization of music through increased demand and lower costs. However, consumers have not embraced this model due to its lack of portability as well as readily available “free” song swapping. (MIS Quarterly) affirms that Given the decline in music sales, there is significant research attention given to questions of whether and to what extent new technologies and media are responsible for the sales decline. With respect to peer-to-peer music sharing technologies, Rob and Waldfogel (2006) estimate that each album download displaces purchases by 0.2 albums. Similarly, Zentner (2006) finds that peer-to-peer usage reduces the probability of buying music by 30 percent. The study by Liebowitz (2004) similarly found that file sharing and mp3 downloads have resulted in sales displacement at the rate of 15 to 20 percent. This comes to say that the internet is slowly decaying the traditional music sales by first moldering the music industry.