Music Consumption in China : A Qualitative Study on Chinese Consumer Behavior in Consuming Music and Its Merchandise

In the past few decades people’s attitude towards music consumption has tremendously changed in China. With the constantly rising market and huge potential space, it is necessary to study the consumer behavior and explore factors that decide people’s willingness to pay in music consumption. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate: 1) What factors may influence the Chinese consumer behavior on music and its merchandise; 2) What factors may influence the “willingness to pay” of Chinese consumer in music consumption; 3) The similarities and differences between the consumption of music product and musical merchandise in China. The authors select the qualitative method and set up two focus groups, music product group and music merchandise group, in this study. Finally, they found five dimensions (musical preference & identity, culture of music, musical loyalty & satisfaction, Chinese music consumption, willingness to pay) will interaction with each other and influence Chinese consumer behavior on music product and its merchandise