The Metric is the Message: How Much of the Decline in Sound Recording Sales is Due to File-Sharing?
Stan J. Liebowitz
University of Texas at Dallas - School of Management - Department of Finance & Managerial Economics
November 2011
Abstract:
The file-sharing literature has focused mainly on whether file-sharing has decreased record sales, with less attention paid to the size of any decline. Although there is still some contention, most studies have concluded that file-sharing has decreased record sales. What has not been noted is that most estimates indicate that the file-sharing has caused the entire enormous decline in record sales that has occurred over the last decade. This heretofore hidden result is due to the lack of a consistent metric that would allow easy comparability across studies. The task of this paper is to provide such a metric, translate the results reported in the literature into that metric, and then summarizes the results from this exercise.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 20
Keywords: file sharing, piracy, sound recordings
working papers series
Suggested Citation
Liebowitz, Stan J., The Metric is the Message: How Much of the Decline in Sound Recording Sales is Due to File-Sharing? (November 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1932518 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1932518
