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Television singing competitions create stars? Empirical evidence from the digital music chart in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Daegon Cho

    (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)

  • Seok Ho Lee

    (The University of Texas at Austin)

  • Yeawon Yoo

    (Arizona State University)

  • Hyo-Youn Chu

    (Kyung Hee University)

Abstract

After the success of American Idol, television singing competitions have become widespread and popular around the world. Although this format has had a substantial influence on the music market of many countries, few studies have quantified this influence. This study examines whether musicians from singing competitions (contestants) earned more money through digital music sales than did other musicians (non-contestants). We used a unique dataset that summed sales from the top 200 monthly digital music chart of South Korea between 2011 and 2014. We analyze the number of the song sold during this tenure, considering several variables such as gender and seasonality. Our findings indicate that songs by contestants yielded larger sales than did those of non-contestants. This positive impact is greater for the top two finalists in the competitions. The insights gained in this study will provide guidance to record companies who are considering recording contracts with contest winners.

Suggested Citation

  • Daegon Cho & Seok Ho Lee & Yeawon Yoo & Hyo-Youn Chu, 2019. "Television singing competitions create stars? Empirical evidence from the digital music chart in South Korea," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(1), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:43:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10824-018-9327-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10824-018-9327-3
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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Television singing competition; Reality TV; Digital music chart; Music industry; Popular music;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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