Dolgin The Economics of Symbolic Exchange

1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-3-540-79883-5
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 503 Seiten

Alexander Dolgin's Economics of Symbolic Exchange is in reality not one but three books, and although these semantic layers are interlinked, the reader will need to choose between the different vectors and modalities. One clearly evident dimension is research. Certain authors introduce quite new intellectual approaches into scienti?c debate. This requires a special frame of mind and a searching curiosity about social reality. Carl Gustav Jung identi?ed a p- nomenon which he called systematic blindness: when a science reaches a stage of maturity and equilibrium, it categorically refuses, from a sense of self-preservation, to note certain facts and phenomena which it ?nds inconvenient. In Alexander D- gin's book whole complexes of such 'non-canonical' material are to be found. Here are just a few examples: ?le exchange networks, through which digital works of art are spread through the Internet; bargain sales of fashionable clothing; the paradox of equal pricing of cultural goods of varying quality; and a discussion of whether - tronage or business has the more productive in?uence on creativity. Obviously, not all the issues Volginraises are totally new, but brought togetherand examinedwithin an elegant logical framework of informational economics, they pose a challenge to scienti?c thinking. Such challenges are by no means immediately or, in some cases, ever acclaimed bythescienti?cestablishment. J. K. Galbraith,forexample,agreatAmericaneco- mist, whose works are read throughout the world, who introduced a whole range of crucially important concepts, the director of John F.

Alexander Dolgin is Professor and head of the Chair of Economics of Culture at the State University - Higher School of Economics, Moscow. He has published two books and over one hundred research papers and popular articles. The main focus of his research interests is the institutional economics of culture, which covers diverse topics such as the deteriorating cultural selection processes, the economics of creative reputations, the theory of the welfare of culture, the economics of the copyright and many others.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dolgin, Alexander

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Foreword;5
2;Preface;10
3;Contents;13
4;Introduction;22
5;A Promising Model for the Music Business;32
5.1;The Popular Liberation Movement in Music;32
5.1.1;Pros and Cons of Liberated Music;32
5.1.2;Copyright in Defence of Whose Interests?;35
5.1.3;The Price Structure of Sound Recordings;36
5.1.4;The Economic Basis of Contracts in the Music Industry;38
5.1.5;Peripeteias of the Introduction of Internet Distribution;40
5.1.6;The Elusive Avengers;42
5.1.7;Socio-economic Counterbalances to Copyright;42
5.1.8;Blunting the Pirates' Competitive Edge;43
5.1.8.1;Lessons of Napster. The Grokster Case;45
5.1.9;The Piracy Business Model;48
5.1.10;RIAA vs the People;49
5.1.11;How Much Does It Cost to Find a Song You Like?;50
5.1.12;The Economics of Sampling;52
5.2;The Paradox of Uniform Prices;53
5.2.1;Is It a Good Thing If Prices Are the Same?;54
5.2.2;Why Are Prices Not Differentiated?;56
5.2.3;Is a Different Price Policy Possible?;57
5.2.4;The Vulnerability of Unwrapped Cultural Products;58
5.2.5;The Flea-Market of Sound Recording;58
5.2.6;Adverse Selection in the Sound Recording Industry;60
5.3;Navigation: A New Kind of Service in the World of Music;62
5.3.1;The Solution of the Problem of Consumer Navigation: Public Assessment of Perceived Quality;62
5.3.1.1;How Are Differences of Taste to Be Taken into Account?;63
5.3.1.2;What Should Reviewers Evaluate in Music?;64
5.3.2;The Invention That Never Was;65
5.3.2.1;Collaborative Filtration: A Fundamental Solution to the Problem of Navigation;65
5.3.2.2;The Mechanism of Collaborative Filtration;65
5.3.2.3;Ringo-The World's First Music Suggestion System: Its History and Its Experience;66
5.3.2.4;Stopping Filtration;68
5.3.2.5;The Technology Substitution Trick;70
5.3.2.6;Who Is Filtering Whom?;71
5.3.2.7;The Business Version of Collaborative Filtration, or Why You Should Compromise Your Principles;73
5.3.2.8;Collaborative Filtration and the Price System;75
5.3.2.9;Recommendation as a Self-sufficient Business;77
5.3.3;An Invention Whose Time Is Yet to Come;78
5.3.3.1;The Cinema and Theatron Projects: A Field Trial of a Two-Stage Payment System;79
5.3.3.2;Why Money Rather than Points?;80
5.3.4;How to Constitute a Stock Exchange for Culture;81
5.3.4.1;Difficulties and Worries;83
5.3.5;Advantages of the New Model;84
5.3.5.1;The Economic Logic of the Solution Proposed;85
5.3.6;Forerunners of a Cultural Stock Exchange;86
5.3.6.1;The Real Significance of the New Artist Programme;86
6;Adverse Selection in the Culture Industries;90
6.1;Consumer Navigation in Culture;90
6.2;Economics on Culture;93
6.3;Business Interests vs the Interests of the Consumer;95
6.4;Adverse Selection in Culture: Formulating the Question;98
6.4.1;Information Inequality as a Reason for Rewriting the Market Rules;100
6.4.2;What is a Tendency to Adverse Selection?;100
6.4.2.1;In Praise of `Lemons';100
6.4.2.2;Other Examples of Information Asymmetry: Pre-Contractual Opportunism;101
6.5;The Susceptibility of Culture to Adverse Selection;103
6.5.1;Preconditions for the Appearance of Adverse Selection;103
6.5.2;How Adverse Selection Operates in Culture;105
6.5.3;Symptoms of Adverse Selection in Culture;106
6.5.4;Why Is It Difficult to Prove Adverse Selection in Culture?;106
6.5.5;Unification of Prices and Adverse Selection;109
6.5.6;Why Do Suppliers Leave Prices Alone?;110
6.5.6.1;Block Booking in the Cinema;115
6.5.7;The Main Thing About Price;117
6.6;Market Agents' Reactions to Adverse Selection;117
6.6.1;Degeneration of Creative Artists;119
6.6.1.1;Patronage or the Market?;122
6.6.1.2;State Patronage or Private Patronage?;125
6.6.2;Degeneration of the Public;128
6.6.2.1;A Pragmatic Definition of Art;130
6.6.2.2;The Placebo Effect in Culture;132
6.6.2.3;Price as a Guide in Fostering Good Taste;133
6.6.3;Overworking the Critics;135
6.6.4;The Cost Disease of Manually Attesting Art;136
6.6.4.1;Consumer Navigation and the Role of the Critic;136
6.6.4.2;Where Do Critics Find Pure Water?;139
6.6.4.3;Collective Professional Assessment;142
6.6.4.4;Ratings;147
6.7;A Survey of Recommender Systems;152
6.7.1;Content Methods of Generating Recommendations;153
6.7.1.1;Drawbacks;154
6.7.2;Collaborative Systems;154
6.7.3;Collaborative Methods of Generating Recommendations;155
6.7.3.1;Snags and Drawbacks;157
6.7.4;Hybrid Methods of Generating Recommendations;161
6.7.5;Effectiveness and Dimensionality of Recommendations;162
6.8;Tendering for Expert Advice;164
7;The Economic Logic of Creative Reputations;166
7.1;The Impossibility of Insurance and Guarantees;166
7.2;Selling Shares in Art;168
7.3;The Economic Nature of Cultural Goods;169
7.3.1;The Role of Brands;169
7.3.2;The Distinctiveness of Cultural Goods;170
7.3.3;Unobservable Quality Plus Non-repeatability;172
7.3.4;The Economic Approach to Determining Quality: Search, Experience, Interpretation and Credence;173
7.3.5;The Time-Money Scale of Cultural Consumption;178
7.3.6;Experience vs. Search Goods: Some Difficulties of Classification;179
7.4;The Repute of Brand Reputations;180
7.4.1;The Traditional View of Advertising;182
7.4.2;How Economics Currently Views Advertising;184
7.4.2.1;What Does `To Condition' Mean?;184
7.4.2.2;Attention Economics;185
7.4.2.3;Branding and `Cheap Talk';186
7.4.2.4;Whom Does an Advertisement Tell About What?;187
7.4.2.5;Branding as a Rational Modern Version of Sacrifice;187
7.4.2.6;`Hand-Made' as Sacrifice;188
7.4.2.7;Reciprocity of Cultural Exchange;189
7.4.2.8;Genetically Engineering the `Hand-Made';191
7.4.3;Entry Barriers for Some, Exit Barriers for Others;194
7.4.4;The Ratio of Quality to Advertising;195
7.4.4.1;Interiors Instead of Cuisine;196
7.4.5;What Influences the Informativeness of Brands and Prices?;197
7.4.6;Branding Strategies;198
7.4.6.1;Brand Management: Playing by the Rules and Playing Outside the Rules;199
7.4.6.2;The Example of Mercedes;200
7.4.6.3;Common Situations in Cultural Branding;201
7.4.7;(Non-)Functional Demand as the Patrimony of Cultural Brands;202
7.5;Information Economics of the Fashion Industries;206
7.5.1;Price Discrimination: A Result and Source of Asymmetric Information;207
7.5.1.1;Bundle Selling;209
7.5.2;The Economic View of Fashion Sales Reductions;210
7.5.2.1;Ethical Aspects of Sales: Two Negative External Effects;211
7.5.3;Competition in the Fashion Industry;214
7.5.3.1;How Shock-Proof Are Brands? The Case of Pierre Cardin;217
7.5.3.2;The Gucci Story;217
7.5.3.3;Assimilation of Fashion Brands;219
7.5.4;The Overall Trend of Changes in Fashion;220
7.5.4.1;Stretching a Reputation: The Case of Polo Ralph Lauren;220
7.5.4.2;What Determines the Pace of Change in Fashion?;223
7.5.4.3;Luxury Superseded by New Luxury;226
7.5.4.4;How Is Fashion Born?;227
7.5.5;Aura and Price;228
7.5.6;What Do Fashion and Music Have in Common?;232
7.6;Cultural Navigation by the Stars;234
7.6.1;Economic Astrology;234
7.6.2;Stars and Perceived Quality;238
7.6.3;The Blockbuster and the Information Cascade;242
7.6.4;Set a Star to Detonate a Blockbuster;245
7.6.5;Stars and the Films on Offer;246
7.6.6;Poor Reception on the Bush Telegraph;249
7.7;Arbitrage in the Ticket Market;251
7.7.1;Speculators as Pilots in the Sea Lanes of Culture;251
7.7.1.1;Ticket Speculation: The Cradle of Russian Big Business;254
7.7.2;Should Touts Be Done Away With?;255
7.7.2.1;Laws on Ticket Speculation (Scalping) in the USA;256
7.7.2.2;What Are Touts For?;257
7.7.2.3;More on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Touts;259
7.7.3;On the Influence of Speculation on Social Welfare;260
7.7.4;Online versus Offline Sales;261
7.7.4.1;A Futures Ticket Market as an Alternative to the Speculators;263
7.7.5;Signalling Quality as an External Effect of Piracy;263
7.8;Television as a Testbed for Attention Economics;266
7.8.1;TiVo and VoD: Operators in the Leisure Time Market;268
7.9;Recommendation in Culture Without the Middleman;269
8;The Concept of Cultural Welfare;272
8.1;Market Measurement of Cultural Value;272
8.1.1;Correlating Price and Value;272
8.1.2;Price, Value, and Scarcity;275
8.1.3;Economic Orthodoxy on Price;276
8.1.4;Consumption as Collecting: The Paradox of Non-decreasing Utility;280
8.1.5;A Utopian Approach to the Measurement of Value;283
8.1.6;Non-market Methods of Determining Cultural Value;284
8.1.7;Techniques Using Revealed Preferences;285
8.2;Cultural Value in the Light of Welfare Theory;286
8.2.1;Happiness Economics;286
8.2.2;Welfare Economics and Social Choice Economics;289
8.3;Assessing Welfare Through Culture;293
8.4;Material Enrichment vs. Personal Cost;294
8.5;Quality Personal Time: The Universal Indicator and Goal of Culture;296
8.5.1;Art as a Means of Creating Quality Time;298
8.5.2;Collaborative Filtering: A Means of Indicating Quality Time;300
8.6;The Ultimate Goal of Culture: Increasing Symbolic Capital;301
8.6.1;What Is Symbolic Capital?;301
8.6.2;Assessing Symbolic Capital;301
8.6.3;The `Decile Coefficient' of Symbolic Capital;302
8.7;A Modified Relational Contract in Culture;304
8.8;Money and Donation;305
8.8.1;Money and Micro-Patronage;308
8.8.2;Voluntary Payment Systems;309
8.9;The Future of Copyright;311
8.9.1;Copyright as a Bridge between Art and Commerce;311
8.9.1.1;The Birth of Copyright;314
8.9.2;An Economic Analysis of Copyright;315
8.9.2.1;What Is Copyright?;315
8.9.2.2;Testing the Underlying Rationale of Copyright;317
8.9.3;Copyright and the Progress of Digital Technologies;320
8.9.3.1;The Moral Deterioration of Copyright;320
8.9.3.2;The Problem of Derivative Creative Products;321
8.9.3.3;The Blurred Contours of Copyright;323
8.9.3.4;The Two-Edged Effect of New Technologies;326
8.9.3.5;Copyright: Does It Do Authors Any Favours?;327
8.9.4;Regulating the Scope of Copyright;328
8.9.4.1;Is the Law an Ass?;329
8.9.5;The Economic Philosophy of Copyright;331
8.9.5.1;Copyright and Folklore;333
8.9.5.2;Example: Leeches in the Village Pond;334
8.9.6;Is a Market Without Copyright Possible?;335
8.9.7;Copyright from the Viewpoint of Symbolic Economics;337
8.9.8;Cultural Communism is Copyleft Plus Collaboration of the Whole Realm of Culture;338
8.9.8.1;What Is Copyleft?;338
8.9.9;The Anatomy of the Long Tail;341
9;Conclusion;344
10;The Marketing of Music Recordings;348
10.1;Introduction;348
10.2;Overview of Trends in the Sound Recording Industry;348
10.2.1;Some Overall Indicators of the Music Recording Market;351
10.3;Types of Sound Recording and Manufacturing Technology;353
10.3.1;Types of Music Products;353
10.3.2;Stages in Creating an Audio Album;353
10.3.3;Encoding (Digitisation) Technology;355
10.3.4;Principles and Formats for Digital Sound Compression;357
10.3.5;Properties of Digital Sound Recording Formats;358
10.3.5.1;MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3);358
10.3.5.2;MPEG-2/4 AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)/MP4;359
10.3.5.3;WMA (Windows Media Audio);359
10.3.5.4;OGG Vorbis;359
10.3.5.5;Musepack (MPEG plus);360
10.3.5.6;Real Audio;360
10.3.5.7;Moving between Formats;360
10.3.6;Types of Media;361
10.3.6.1;Music Sales Trends by Media Type;361
10.3.7;Compact Disc Manufacturing Technology;365
10.3.8;The Evolution of Digital Data Media;365
10.4;Key Players in the Music Recording Market;366
10.4.1;The Major Labels;367
10.4.1.1;Recent Mergers and Takeovers in the Sound Recording Industry;371
10.4.2;Independent Sound Recording Companies (the Indie Labels);372
10.4.3;Music Publishers;373
10.4.4;Artists;375
10.4.4.1;The Artistic Career Ladder;375
10.4.4.2;The Contract Between the Performer and the Company: Ideology and Key Elements;376
10.4.4.3;Performers Income and Outgoings;377
10.4.4.4;Private Enterprise by the Stars;378
10.4.4.5;Artists' Sales Ratings;378
10.4.4.6;The Life-Cycle of a Music Product;379
10.5;Commercial Outlets and Channels for Promotion;379
10.5.1;Mass Media Channels for Promoting Music;381
10.6;Radio;381
10.7;Television;381
10.8;The Internet;381
10.9;Cinema;382
10.10;Computer and Video Games;382
10.10.1;The Impact of Different Media on American Consumers;382
10.10.2;Legal Distribution of Albums on Physical Media;382
10.10.2.1;Retail Distribution of Compact Discs;382
10.10.2.2;The Role of the Main Store Operators like Wal-Mart;384
10.10.2.3;Distribution of Compact Discs Through Record Clubs;384
10.10.3;Online Distribution of Music;385
10.10.3.1;Formation of a Legal Online Music Market;386
10.10.3.2;Development of the Online Music Market in Europe;387
10.10.3.3;Legal Online Services Outside the USA and Europe;388
10.10.3.4;Problems of Creating a Legal Online Business;388
10.10.3.5;Options for Buying Music on the Internet;389
10.11;Price Formation and Price in the Music Industry;390
10.11.1;Typical Production Costs of a CD;391
10.11.2;The Retail Price of Music on CD and Online;394
10.11.2.1;Economic Indicators of Online Stores;395
10.11.3;The Price Trend;396
10.11.4;Consumer Costs of Obtaining Music Through Various Channels;397
10.12;Description of Demand/Consumption;403
10.12.1;Average per Capita Media Usage;403
10.12.2;Consumer Profiles;405
10.12.2.1;Buyers of Music Products by Age, %;405
10.12.2.2;Buyers of Music Products by Gender, %;406
10.12.2.3;Distribution by Buying Activity;406
10.12.2.4;Distribution of Demand by Country;406
10.13;Piracy in the Music Market;407
10.13.1;Pirate Products on Physical Media;407
10.13.1.1;The Scale of Pirate Markets;407
10.13.1.2;The Extent of Piracy on Physical Media;412
10.13.1.3;Levels of Music Piracy by Country, 2004;413
10.13.1.4;Compact Disc Manufacturing Capacities;414
10.13.1.5;Transportation Routes of Counterfeit Discs;414
10.13.1.6;Main Regions for Piracy;415
10.13.2;Illegal Distribution of Digital Music;415
10.13.2.1;Influence of High-Speed Internet on the Sound-Recording Market;417
10.14;The Environment of Online Piracy: Peer-to-Peer Networks;419
10.14.1;What Are Peer-to-Peer Networks?;419
10.14.2;The Evolution of Peer-to-Peer Networks;420
10.14.3;Analysis of File Sharing by Content Type;425
10.14.4;Problems of Peer-to-Peer Network Clients;425
10.14.5;Business Models of Peer-to-Peer Networks;432
10.14.5.1;Business Models with Free Access to Content;433
10.14.6;Parasite Programs;433
10.14.7;Further Development of Peer-to-Peer Networks;435
10.14.8;The Geographical Distribution of Peer-to-Peer Networks;436
10.14.9;The Level of Global Peering Traffic;438
10.15;The Struggle Against Internet Piracy;438
10.15.1;Technical Protection of Content;439
10.15.1.1;Principles of Protection;439
10.15.1.2;Persistent Encryption of Content;440
10.15.1.3;Different Terms for the Sale of Content;441
10.15.2;Informational and Educational Campaign;441
10.15.3;Collaboration with Internet Providers;443
10.15.4;Release of Anti-Piracy Computer Programs;444
10.15.5;Professional Guilds, Societies, and Associations in Russia and the USA for Safeguarding the Interests of Market Participants;444
10.15.5.1;The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI, www.ifpi.org);444
10.15.5.2;The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA, www.riaa.org);445
10.15.5.3;The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA, www.nmpa.org);445
10.15.5.4;The Russian Society for Multimedia and Digital Networks (ROMS, http://www.roms.ru/);445
10.15.5.5;The Russian Authors' Society (RAO, www.rao.ru);445
10.15.5.6;The Russian Society for the Management of Performers' Rights (ROUPI);446
10.15.5.7;The Russian Phonographic Association (RFA, www.fonogram.ru);446
10.15.5.8;The National Federation of Phonogram Manufacturers (NFPF, www.nfpf.org);446
10.15.5.9;Association of DVD Publishers (www.advdp.ru);446
10.15.5.10;IFPI Against Piracy;447
10.15.6;Independent Civil Rights Organisations;448
10.15.7;Influence of Macro-Economic Factors on the Sound Recording Market;449
10.16;Means of Navigation on the Internet;449
10.16.1;Recommender Systems Based on DSP Technologies;449
10.16.2;Survey of Software for Digital Music Recognition;452
10.16.2.1;eTantrum;452
10.16.2.2;Uplister;453
10.16.2.3;Mongo Music;453
10.16.2.4;Gracenote (www.gracenote.com);453
10.16.2.5;Tuneprint (www.tuneprint.com);453
10.16.2.6;Friskit (www.friskit.com);454
10.16.2.7;MoodLogic (www.moodlogic.com);454
10.16.2.8;Relatable (www.relatable.com);455
10.16.3;Hybrid Recommender Systems;455
10.16.3.1;Musicmobs (www.musicmobs.com);455
10.16.3.2;MediaUnbound's AudioInsight (www.mediaunbound.com);456
10.16.4;Personally Attunable Internet-Radio Stations;457
10.16.4.1;Yahoo's Launchcast (http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/);457
10.16.5;Partnerships of Independent Recommender Systems with Content Providers (Online Music Services and e-Retailers);458
10.16.5.1;GenieLab (www.genielab.com);458
10.16.6;Recommender Systems in e-Commerce;458
10.16.6.1;Examples of Recommender Systems Used in e-Commerce;459
10.16.6.2;Amazon.com;459
10.16.6.3;Recommender Service on OD2 (www.ondemanddistribution.com);459
10.16.6.4;The eMusic Recommender Service (www.emusic.com);461
10.16.6.5;Upto11 (www.upto11.net);462
10.16.7;Recommender Systems as a Means of Promoting Independent Performers;462
10.16.7.1;iRate Radio (http://irate.sourceforge.net);462
10.16.7.2;inDiscover (http://indiscover.net/);463
10.16.8;Users' Ratings of Recommender Systems;463
10.16.9;Recommender Systems and Mobile Phone Communications;466
10.17;Personalised menus and content recommendations;466
10.18;Juxtaposition of Profiles of People with Similar Tastes;467
10.19;Related Markets;468
10.19.1;The MP3 Player Market;468
10.19.1.1;Types of Players;469
10.19.1.2;Flash Players;469
10.19.1.3;CD Players Supporting the MP3 Format;469
10.19.1.4;Hard Drive (HDD) Players;470
10.19.1.5;MP3 Players and Their Influence on the Development of the Music Market;470
10.19.2;The Ringtone Market;471
11;Lawsuits Against Peering Networks;474
11.1;The Case of RIAA versus Napster;474
11.1.1;Discussion of Sampling in the Napster Case;474
11.1.2;The Nature and Extent of Napster's Guilt;475
11.2;The Grokster Case;476
11.2.1;The chronology of events was as follows:;476
11.3;25 April 2003;476
11.4;20 August 2003;477
11.5;19 August 2004;477
11.6;29 March 2005;478
11.7;27 June 2005;478
11.8;7 November 2005;478
11.9;Chronology of Lawsuits After the Closure of Napster;479
11.10;19 September 2003;479
11.11;19 December 2003;479
11.12;February-March 2004;479
11.13;25 March 2004;479
11.14;May 2004;479
11.15;23 June 2004;480
11.16;July 2004;480
11.17;10 September 2004;480
11.18;Late September-early October 2004;480
11.19;October 2004;480
11.20;8 July 2005;480
11.21;5 September 2005;481
11.22;September 2005;481
11.23;October 2005;481
11.24;October 2005;481
11.25;November 2005;481
11.26;December 2005;481
11.27;15 December 2005;481
11.28;December 2005;482
11.29;February 2006;482
11.30;March 2006;482
11.31;23 March 2006;482
11.32;April 2006;482
11.32.1;Regional Lawsuits Against Peer-to-Peer Networks;482
11.32.2;Lawsuits Against Private Individuals;483
11.33;The Betamax Case;483
12;Types of Free Licenses;486
12.1;Public Domain;486
12.2;GNU General Public License;486
12.3;GNU Free Documentation License;486
12.4;Design Science License (DSL);487
12.5;Free Art License;487
12.6;Ethymonics Free Music License;487
12.7;Creative Commons (CC);487
12.8;EFF Open Audio License;488
12.9;Open Music Licenses;489
12.10;Mozilla Public License (MPL);489
12.11;Berkeley Software Distribution License (BSD License);490
12.12;MIT License;490
13;The Theatron and Cinema Projects;492
13.1;The Research Topic;492
13.2;Tasks of the Research;494
13.3;Research Method;494
13.4;The Results;495
13.4.1;Theatron Project;495
14;References;510