ANALYSIS OF CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS DIGITAL MUSIC SERVICE AND SUSTAINABILITY OF CURRENT BUSINESS MODELS IN MUSIC INDUSTRY

This research study is an investigation into the consumption of digital music. Rapid growth in the market for digital music has been led by the rise in popularity of online download stores such as iTunes and streaming services. Consumers now have the option to acquire songs from a variety of paid and non-paid legitimate sources, as well as through unlawful channels. By analysing theories on consumer attitudes and behaviours towards services in music industry, this study places emphasis on the role of norms and attitudes in the formation of intentions to incline towards a particular digital music service. It will be shown that these preferences affect the treatment of digital music as a cultural object. The attitudes of consumers were analysed by considering five main factors: Price, Quality of Music, Song Selection option, Legality and Synchronisation option. These factors were decided based on an analysis conducted on the business model components of three digital music services: Spotify, iTunes and SoundCloud. This study also attempts to predict the sustainability of selected business models. An online questionnaire was designed and completed by a total of (n = 64) consumers. The data was analysed using a mixed-method approach in order to triangulate quantitative results. The results indicate that Price is an important factor that influences the attitude of consumers towards a particular music service. Despite being satisfied by streaming service, price is still a sensitive factor and willingness to pay for music is still low. Analysis was performed to understand the differences in needs of different service user groups and the results of this analysis indicated that SoundCloud users are more concerned about the quality of songs and music selection option than Spotify users. Overall, the results indicate the important factors that decides consumers’ attitude towards any digital music service. Furthermore, they question the long-term viability of business models in the current music industry