IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v42y2024i3p483-497.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic behavior, artistic integrity, and tradeoffs in popular music

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Weinbach
  • Phillip Kamau Njoroge
  • Robert Salvino
  • Arch Woodside

Abstract

This study examines market concentration's influence on popular music. The data cover popular music from weekly Billboard Hot 100 songs from 1952 to 1989, for which song characteristic data including tempo and duration is available from the Million Song Dataset (MSD). Greater market concentration of the top four artists is found to impact song length, with longer #1 songs and shorter songs in the #2 through #10 spots on the Billboard charts. However, tests for alterations in song construction by top artists that might indicate a form of “sell‐out” behavior do not reveal evidence of it.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Weinbach & Phillip Kamau Njoroge & Robert Salvino & Arch Woodside, 2024. "Strategic behavior, artistic integrity, and tradeoffs in popular music," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(3), pages 483-497, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:42:y:2024:i:3:p:483-497
    DOI: 10.1111/coep.12649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12649
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/coep.12649?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. W. Crain & Robert Tollison, 2002. "Consumer Choice and the Popular Music Industry: A Test of the Superstar Theory," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-9, March.
    2. F. Andrew Hanssen & Alexander Raskovich, 2020. "Does Vertical Integration Spur Investment? Casting Actors to Discover Stars during the Hollywood Studio Era," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(4), pages 631-666.
    3. Samuel Cameron, 2016. "Past, present and future: music economics at the crossroads," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 40(1), pages 1-12, February.
    4. Richard A. Posner, 1975. "The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Kai A. Konrad & Arye L. Hillman (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 2, pages 45-65, Springer.
    5. Crain, W. Mark & Tollison, Robert D., 1997. "Economics and the architecture of popular music," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 185-205, February.
    6. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein & Ted O'Donoghue, 2002. "Time Discounting and Time Preference: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 351-401, June.
    7. Peter W. Newberry, 2016. "An empirical study of observational learning," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(2), pages 394-432, May.
    8. Ken Hendricks & Alan Sorensen, 2009. "Information and the Skewness of Music Sales," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(2), pages 324-369, April.
    9. Robert Tollison, 2012. "The economic theory of rent seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 73-82, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antoine Gentier & Giusepina Gianfreda & Nathalie Janson, 2011. "Rent dissipation or government predation ? The notes issuance activity in Italy 1865-1882," Post-Print hal-00735325, HAL.
    2. Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Eric Langlais & Bruno Lovat & Francesco Parisi, 2007. "Crowding-out in productive and redistributive rent-seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 199-229, October.
    3. Aloys Prinz, 2017. "Rankings as coordination games: the Dutch Top 2000 pop song ranking," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 379-401, November.
    4. Andrea Ordanini, 2006. "Selection models in the music industry: How a prior independent experience may affect chart success," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 30(3), pages 183-200, December.
    5. Marc Bourreau & Michel Gensollen & François Moreau & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2013. "“Selling less of more?” The impact of digitization on record companies," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(3), pages 327-346, August.
    6. Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Francesco Parisi, 2005. "Rents, dissipation and lost treasures: Rethinking Tullock's paradox," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 411-422, September.
    7. Tariq Hussain & Khizra Rana, 2022. "Rent Seeking Policy, Institutions and Corruption in Specific Countries of the World," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(4), pages 283-291, December.
    8. Erdem Dogukan Yilmaz & Ivana Naumovska & Milan Miric, 2023. "Does imitation increase or decrease demand for an original product? Understanding the opposing effects of discovery and substitution," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 639-671, March.
    9. Juan D. Montoro-Pons & Manuel Cuadrado-García, 2018. "“Let’s make lots of money”: the determinants of performance in the recorded music sector," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(2), pages 287-307, May.
    10. Antoine Gentier & Giuseppina Gianfreda & Nathalie Janson, 2006. "The Question of the Rent Dissipation in the Notes Issuance Activity: The Case of the Italian Banking System before the Creation of the Bank of Italy," CAE Working Papers 45, Aix-Marseille Université, CERGAM.
    11. Tan Ngoc Vu & Duc Hong Vo & Michael McAleer, 2019. "Rent seeking for export licenses: Application to the Vietnam rice market," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2019-13, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    12. Teklewold, Hailemariam, 2011. "Farming or burning? shadow prices and farmer’s impatience on the allocation of multi-purpose resource in the mixed farming system of Ethiopia," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 116080, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. & Botzen, W.J.W., 2015. "Monetary valuation of the social cost of CO2 emissions: A critical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 33-46.
    14. David Blake & John Pickles, 2021. "Mental Time Travel and Retirement Savings," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, December.
    15. Amihai Glazer & Stef Proost, 2020. "Benefits to the majority from universal service," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(2), pages 391-408, April.
    16. Aileen Heinberg & Angela Hung & Arie Kapteyn & Annamaria Lusardi & Anya Savikhin Samek & Joanne Yoong, 2014. "Five steps to planning success: experimental evidence from US households," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 697-724.
    17. Lisa A. Robinson & James K. Hammitt, 2011. "Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Analysis," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(9), pages 1408-1422, September.
    18. Delaney, Liam & Fink, Günther & Harmon, Colm, 2014. "Effects Of Stress On Economic Decision-Making: Evidence From Laboratory Experiments," Working Papers 2014-03, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    19. Leonhard K. Lades & Liam Delaney, 2024. "Self-control failures, as judged by themselves," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    20. Sophie Clot & Charlotte Y. Stanton & Marc Willinger, 2017. "Are impatient farmers more risk-averse? Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in rural Uganda," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 156-169, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:42:y:2024:i:3:p:483-497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.