How Digitization Has Created a Golden Age of Music, Movies, Books, and Television

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4029939
AutoresJoel Waldfogel (0000-0002-8040-7227, Joel Waldfogel is the Frederick R. Kappel Chair in Applied Economics, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts. His email address is, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen31
Número3
Páginas195-214
Fecha de publicación2017-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965
EditorialAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/jep.31.3.195
OpenAlexW2736756674
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas35
Referencias citadas19

Digitization is disrupting a number of copyright-protected media industries, including books, music, radio, television, and movies. Once information is transformed into digital form, it can be copied and distributed at near-zero marginal costs. This change has facilitated piracy in some industries, which in turn has made it difficult for commercial sellers to continue generating the same levels of revenue for bringing products to market in the traditional ways. Yet despite the sharp revenue reductions for recorded music, as well as threats to revenue in some other traditional media industries, other aspects of digitization have had the offsetting effects of reducing the costs of bringing new products to market in music, movies, books, and television. On balance, digitization has increased the number of new products that are created and made available to consumers. Moreover, given the unpredictable nature of product quality, growth in new products has given rise to substantial increases in the quality of the best products. Although there were concerns that consumer welfare from media products would fall, the opposite scenario has emerged-a golden age for consumers who wish to consume media products

Advertising · Art · Business · Commerce · Digitization · Economics · Revenue · Telecommunications · Art History and Market Analysis · Computer Science · Copyright and Intellectual Property · Digital Platforms and Economics · Finance · Marketing