E-Commerce and the Market Structure of the Recorded Music Industry

Marc Bourreau (1, 2, 3) , Romain Lestage (4) , François Moreau (5)

1 CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique
2 ECOGE - Economie Gestion
3 SES - Département Sciences Economiques et Sociales
4 Central University of Finance and Economics [Beijing]
5 CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord

In this article, we study the impact of the development of e-commerce on the concentration of the recorded music industry in France, for the period 2003–2010. First, we find that over the whole period, CD sales, measured at the distributor level, are less concentrated online than offline. Second, we find that sales concentration online has increased between the early period of e-commerce (2003–2006) and the later period (2007–2010).

Keywords: Market structure; Electronic commerce; Music industry

Domains: Economics and Finance

Marc Bourreau, Romain Lestage, François Moreau. E-Commerce and the Market Structure of the Recorded Music Industry. Applied Economics Letters, 2017, 24 (9), pp.598-601. ⟨10.1080/13504851.2016.1217298⟩. ⟨hal-01406272⟩