IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v43y2024i1p1-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Frontiers: The Interplay of User-Generated Content, Content Industry Revenues, and Platform Regulation: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from YouTube

Author

Listed:
  • Nils Wlömert

    (Institute for Retailing & Data Science, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

  • Dominik Papies

    (School of Business and Economics and member of the Machine Learning Cluster of Excellence, University of Tuebingen, 72074 Tuebingen, Germany)

  • Michel Clement

    (Institute of Marketing, University of Hamburg, 20148 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Martin Spann

    (LMU Munich School of Management, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80539 Munich, Germany)

Abstract

An ongoing debate among firms, rightsholders, particularly in the music industry, and policymakers in the United States and the European Union concerns potential changes to the regulation of user-generated content (UGC) video streaming platforms (e.g., YouTube). Currently, safe harbor provisions protect platforms from liability for copyright-infringing content uploaded by users, and requirements for compensating rightsholders for UGC are weak, resulting in comparatively low payouts. At the same time, it is unclear how a change in these regulations would affect consumer demand for this content on other platforms with higher payouts (e.g., Spotify), that is, whether UGC platforms stimulate or displace demand on other platforms. We study a quasi-experiment that occurred when numerous songs became available as UGC on YouTube after an agreement between YouTube and the German royalty collecting society. Our analysis of an unprecedented data set covering 600,000 songs by 38,000 artists reveals an intriguing finding: Although UGC availability stimulates demand in other streaming channels for most songs, cannibalization occurs for recent releases and hit releases, turning the overall revenue effect negative. We discuss how policymakers can use these findings to understand the implications of changes in regulation, and how labels and artists can decide which content to block or allow on UGC platforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Nils Wlömert & Dominik Papies & Michel Clement & Martin Spann, 2024. "Frontiers: The Interplay of User-Generated Content, Content Industry Revenues, and Platform Regulation: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from YouTube," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:43:y:2024:i:1:p:1-12
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2022.0080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2022.0080
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.2022.0080?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. Hannes Datta & George Knox & Bart J. Bronnenberg, 2018. "Changing Their Tune: How Consumers’ Adoption of Online Streaming Affects Music Consumption and Discovery," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 5-21, January.
    2. Laurina Zhang, 2018. "Intellectual Property Strategy and the Long Tail: Evidence from the Recorded Music Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 24-42, January.
    3. Tobias Kretschmer & Christian Peukert, 2020. "Video Killed the Radio Star? Online Music Videos and Recorded Music Sales," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 776-800, September.
    4. Luis Aguiar & Joel Waldfogel, 2021. "Platforms, Power, and Promotion: Evidence from Spotify Playlists," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 653-691, September.
    5. Chen He & Tobias J. Klein, 2023. "Advertising as a Reminder: Evidence from the Dutch State Lottery," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 892-909, September.
    6. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-82, January.
    7. Scott Hiller, R., 2016. "Sales displacement and streaming music: Evidence from YouTube," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 16-26.
    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. Marc Ivaldi & Ambre Nicolle & Frank Verboven & Jiekai Zhang, 2024. "Displacement and complementarity in the recorded music industry: evidence from France," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(1), pages 43-94, March.
    2. Alagöz, Nazli, 2024. "Promotion and technological change in the music industry," Other publications TiSEM 511ceba0-62a0-4c60-a76c-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Myounggu Lee & Hye-jin Kim, 2024. "Exploring determinants of digital music success in South Korea," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1659-1680, September.
    4. Daniel Winkler & Christian Hotz-Behofsits & Nils Wlomert & Dominik Papies & Jura Liaukonyte, 2024. "The Impact of Social Media on Music Demand: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Papers 2405.14999, arXiv.org.
    5. Christian Peukert & Margaritha Windisch, 2023. "The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 10687, CESifo.
    6. Tobias Kretschmer & Christian Peukert, 2020. "Video Killed the Radio Star? Online Music Videos and Recorded Music Sales," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 776-800, September.
    7. Johannes Loh, 2022. "Selection, Consumption, and New Music Exploration in an Online Social Network: A Dyadic Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 10120, CESifo.
    8. Jordi McKenzie & Paul Crosby & Liam J. A. Lenten, 2021. "It takes two, baby! Feature artist collaborations and streaming demand for music," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(3), pages 385-408, September.
    9. Hidetaka Oshima & Shinichi Yamaguchi, 2023. "The impact of user-generated content authorization on demand in the game industry," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(11), pages 1-26, November.
    10. Ramadan Aly-Tovar & Maya Bacache-Beauvallet & Marc Bourreau & Francois Moreau, 2020. "Why would artists favor free streaming?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 44(2), pages 255-280, June.
    11. Gambato, Jacopo & Sandrini, Luca, 2024. "Not as good as it used to be: Do streaming platforms penalize quality?," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-045, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Luis Aguiar & Imke Reimers & Joel Waldfogel, 2024. "Platforms and the transformation of the content industries," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 317-326, March.
    13. Carroni, Elias & Paolini, Dimitri, 2020. "Business models for streaming platforms: Content acquisition, advertising and users," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    14. Amelia Fletcher & Peter L Ormosi & Rahul Savani, 2023. "Recommender Systems and Supplier Competition on Platforms," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 397-426.
    15. Daniel Kaimann & Ilka Tanneberg & Joe Cox, 2021. "“I will survive”: Online streaming and the chart survival of music tracks," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 3-20, January.
    16. Yongjin Park & Youngsok Bang & Jae-Hyeon Ahn, 2020. "How Does the Mobile Channel Reshape the Sales Distribution in E-Commerce?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1164-1182, December.
    17. E. Carroni & D. Paolini, 2019. "The business model of a streaming platform," Working Paper CRENoS 201902, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    18. Gambato, Jacopo & Sandrini, Luca, 2023. "Not as good as it used to be: Do streaming platforms penalize quality?," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-032, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Christian Peukert, 2019. "The next wave of digital technological change and the cultural industries," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 189-210, June.
    20. Shinichi Yamaguchi & Hirohide Sakaguchi & Kotaro Iyanaga & Hidetaka Oshima & Tatsuo Tanaka, 2023. "The impact of licensed and unlicensed free goods: an empirical analysis of music, video, and book industries in Japan," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-22, March.

    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:inm:ormksc:v:43:y:2024:i:1:p:1-12. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.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.