Psychological ownership and music streaming consumption

Abstract

Streaming is becoming the most common format from which people access, share and listen to music and it is suggested that such practices are indicative of a shift towards a ‘post-ownership’ economy. In the case of music, consumers may place greater value (emotional and monetary) on the physical product because of the lack of legal ownership and/or absence of perceived ownership associated with streaming. This article examines how experiences of ownership are articulated through music streaming formats via qualitative interviews and an online themed discussion group. Drawing from psychological ownership theory we identify motivations (place, identity and control), antecedents (investing the self, coming to intimately know the target, pride and controlling the target) and outcomes (loyalty, empowerment and social rewards) of psychological ownership that are evident in the consumers' experiences of music streaming. This has theoretical and managerial implications for our understanding of how consumers engage with the post-ownership economy

The end of ownership?: An investigation of users' preferences and perceptions of ownership configurations

“…Scholars in marketing and consumer research observed a general shift from the ownership to the access model and suggested digital media content as examples of or candidates for communal sharing and short-term access in the "post-ownership economy" (Belk, 2014(Belk, , p. 1599 or "the age of access" (Rifkin, 2000, p. 1). Although Watkins et al (2016) opposed the use of the ownership and access dichotomy, many scholars/observers have used this dichotomy to suggest that consumers are moving away from ownership to access-based consumption (Belk, 2014;Lawson, Gleim, Perren, & Hwang, 2016;Rifkin, 2014;Rowley, 2008;Sinclair & Tinson, 2017). An example of this shift is the proliferation of the access-based digital services model, including subscription services for e-books, digital music, and digital videos.…”

Drivers and deterrents of music streaming services purchase intention

“…The way consumers listen to music has also changed, mainly through access made easier in the internet through digital spaces and streaming platforms like iTunes or Spotify (Sinclair and Tinson, 2017). Nowadays, consumers face "a myriad of music platforms with widely different characteristics in terms of business model (advertising supported, fee-based, etc.)…”

“…Through new concepts of digital music distribution (Doerr et al, 2010) such as music as a service (MaaS), fans everywhere can now listen to every song of every band over the internet as a service, blurring national boundaries. Digital music came to stay, accounting for the first time for over 50% (54%) of total industry revenues , while conversely physical product sales are declining (Sinclair and Tinson, 2017) together with illegal downloading (Sinclair and Green, 2016). In particular, licensed music streaming services (MSS) overcame $17.3 billion of sales in 2017, following a 41.1% sharp growth , and are expected to reach a total of 978 million users and 220 million subscribers by 2020 (Statista, 2018b).…”

“…In fact, the underlying concept of MSS relies on inducing consumers to listen to streamed music on demand. The majority of these MSS providers use the 'freemium' model (Anderson, 2009), where the core, basic version is offered for free, while revenues are generated through the sales of paid premium versions (Hamari et al, 2017a;Sinclair and Tinson, 2017). Freemium, an increasingly dominant business model for today's services, is a promising solution to earn money, now that the 'digitally embracing' and 'device connected' Web 2.0 users feel increasingly entitled to free services (Dou, 2004;Wang et al, 2005;Pauwels and Weiss, 2008;Veit et al, 2014).…”

“…By giving access to a free version, providers hope to optimise consumer trial and, over time, engagement with the service, which could lead users to opt for the premium version (Dinsmore et al, 2017). Users can listen to almost every song available by using the free version of the service, but paying customers have several advantages, like no advertising, better sound quality, unrestricted access to the catalogue, offline listening and the option to download their favourite albums (Sinclair and Tinson, 2017;Wagner et al, 2014). These paying premium users not only allow financing non-paying users, which cause almost no marginal costs, but also help providers to pay royalties to the music license holder: therefore, it is critical for the long-term viability of MSS to improve their conversion rates (Wagner et al, 2014;Wang et al,.…”