The Economics of Symbolic Exchange

Cover......Page 1
Foreword......Page 5
Preface......Page 10
Contents......Page 12
Introduction......Page 21
Pros and Cons of Liberated Music......Page 31
Copyright in Defence of Whose Interests?......Page 34
The Price Structure of Sound Recordings......Page 35
The Economic Basis of Contracts in the Music Industry......Page 37
Peripeteias of the Introduction of Internet Distribution......Page 39
Socio-economic Counterbalances to Copyright......Page 41
Blunting the Pirates\' Competitive Edge......Page 42
Lessons of Napster. The Grokster Case......Page 44
The Piracy Business Model......Page 47
RIAA vs the People......Page 48
How Much Does It Cost to Find a Song You Like?......Page 49
The Economics of Sampling......Page 51
The Paradox of Uniform Prices......Page 52
Is It a Good Thing If Prices Are the Same?......Page 53
Why Are Prices Not Differentiated?......Page 55
Is a Different Price Policy Possible?......Page 56
The Flea-Market of Sound Recording......Page 57
Adverse Selection in the Sound Recording Industry......Page 59
The Solution of the Problem of Consumer Navigation: Public Assessment of Perceived Quality......Page 61
How Are Differences of Taste to Be Taken into Account?......Page 62
What Should Reviewers Evaluate in Music?......Page 63
The Mechanism of Collaborative Filtration......Page 64
Ringo-The World\'s First Music Suggestion System: Its History and Its Experience......Page 65
Stopping Filtration......Page 67
The Technology Substitution Trick......Page 69
Who Is Filtering Whom?......Page 70
The Business Version of Collaborative Filtration, or Why You Should Compromise Your Principles......Page 72
Collaborative Filtration and the Price System......Page 74
Recommendation as a Self-sufficient Business......Page 76
An Invention Whose Time Is Yet to Come......Page 77
The Cinema and Theatron Projects: A Field Trial of a Two-Stage Payment System......Page 78
Why Money Rather than Points?......Page 79
How to Constitute a Stock Exchange for Culture......Page 80
Difficulties and Worries......Page 82
Advantages of the New Model......Page 83
The Economic Logic of the Solution Proposed......Page 84
The Real Significance of the New Artist Programme......Page 85
Consumer Navigation in Culture......Page 88
Economics on Culture......Page 91
Business Interests vs the Interests of the Consumer......Page 93
Adverse Selection in Culture: Formulating the Question......Page 96
In Praise of `Lemons\'......Page 98
Other Examples of Information Asymmetry: Pre-Contractual Opportunism......Page 99
Preconditions for the Appearance of Adverse Selection......Page 101
How Adverse Selection Operates in Culture......Page 103
Why Is It Difficult to Prove Adverse Selection in Culture?......Page 104
Unification of Prices and Adverse Selection......Page 107
Why Do Suppliers Leave Prices Alone?......Page 108
Block Booking in the Cinema......Page 113
Market Agents\' Reactions to Adverse Selection......Page 115
Degeneration of Creative Artists......Page 117
Patronage or the Market?......Page 120
State Patronage or Private Patronage?......Page 123
Degeneration of the Public......Page 126
A Pragmatic Definition of Art......Page 128
The Placebo Effect in Culture......Page 130
Price as a Guide in Fostering Good Taste......Page 131
Overworking the Critics......Page 133
Consumer Navigation and the Role of the Critic......Page 134
Where Do Critics Find Pure Water?......Page 137
Collective Professional Assessment......Page 140
Ratings......Page 145
A Survey of Recommender Systems......Page 150
Content Methods of Generating Recommendations......Page 151
Collaborative Systems......Page 152
Collaborative Methods of Generating Recommendations......Page 153
Snags and Drawbacks......Page 155
Hybrid Methods of Generating Recommendations......Page 159
Effectiveness and Dimensionality of Recommendations......Page 160
Tendering for Expert Advice......Page 162
The Impossibility of Insurance and Guarantees......Page 164
Selling Shares in Art......Page 166
The Role of Brands......Page 167
The Distinctiveness of Cultural Goods......Page 168
Unobservable Quality Plus Non-repeatability......Page 170
The Economic Approach to Determining Quality: Search, Experience, Interpretation and Credence......Page 171
The Time-Money Scale of Cultural Consumption......Page 176
Experience vs. Search Goods: Some Difficulties of Classification......Page 177
The Repute of Brand Reputations......Page 178
The Traditional View of Advertising......Page 180
What Does `To Condition\' Mean?......Page 182
Attention Economics......Page 183
Branding and `Cheap Talk\'......Page 184
Branding as a Rational Modern Version of Sacrifice......Page 185
`Hand-Made\' as Sacrifice......Page 186
Reciprocity of Cultural Exchange......Page 187
Genetically Engineering the `Hand-Made\'......Page 189
Entry Barriers for Some, Exit Barriers for Others......Page 192
The Ratio of Quality to Advertising......Page 193
Interiors Instead of Cuisine......Page 194
What Influences the Informativeness of Brands and Prices?......Page 195
Branding Strategies......Page 196
Brand Management: Playing by the Rules and Playing Outside the Rules......Page 197
The Example of Mercedes......Page 198
Common Situations in Cultural Branding......Page 199
(Non-)Functional Demand as the Patrimony of Cultural Brands......Page 200
Information Economics of the Fashion Industries......Page 204
Price Discrimination: A Result and Source of Asymmetric Information......Page 205
Bundle Selling......Page 207
The Economic View of Fashion Sales Reductions......Page 208
Ethical Aspects of Sales: Two Negative External Effects......Page 209
Competition in the Fashion Industry......Page 212
The Gucci Story......Page 215
Assimilation of Fashion Brands......Page 217
Stretching a Reputation: The Case of Polo Ralph Lauren......Page 218
What Determines the Pace of Change in Fashion?......Page 221
Luxury Superseded by New Luxury......Page 224
How Is Fashion Born?......Page 225
Aura and Price......Page 226
What Do Fashion and Music Have in Common?......Page 230
Economic Astrology......Page 232
Stars and Perceived Quality......Page 236
The Blockbuster and the Information Cascade......Page 240
Set a Star to Detonate a Blockbuster......Page 243
Stars and the Films on Offer......Page 244
Poor Reception on the Bush Telegraph......Page 247
Speculators as Pilots in the Sea Lanes of Culture......Page 249
Ticket Speculation: The Cradle of Russian Big Business......Page 252
Should Touts Be Done Away With?......Page 253
Laws on Ticket Speculation (Scalping) in the USA......Page 254
What Are Touts For?......Page 255
More on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Touts......Page 257
On the Influence of Speculation on Social Welfare......Page 258
Online versus Offline Sales......Page 259
Signalling Quality as an External Effect of Piracy......Page 261
Television as a Testbed for Attention Economics......Page 264
TiVo and VoD: Operators in the Leisure Time Market......Page 266
Recommendation in Culture Without the Middleman......Page 267
Correlating Price and Value......Page 270
Price, Value, and Scarcity......Page 273
Economic Orthodoxy on Price......Page 274
Consumption as Collecting: The Paradox of Non-decreasing Utility......Page 278
A Utopian Approach to the Measurement of Value......Page 281
Non-market Methods of Determining Cultural Value......Page 282
Techniques Using Revealed Preferences......Page 283
Happiness Economics......Page 284
Welfare Economics and Social Choice Economics......Page 287
Assessing Welfare Through Culture......Page 291
Material Enrichment vs. Personal Cost......Page 292
Quality Personal Time: The Universal Indicator and Goal of Culture......Page 294
Art as a Means of Creating Quality Time......Page 296
Collaborative Filtering: A Means of Indicating Quality Time......Page 298
Assessing Symbolic Capital......Page 299
The `Decile Coefficient\' of Symbolic Capital......Page 300
A Modified Relational Contract in Culture......Page 302
Money and Donation......Page 303
Money and Micro-Patronage......Page 306
Voluntary Payment Systems......Page 307
Copyright as a Bridge between Art and Commerce......Page 309
The Birth of Copyright......Page 312
What Is Copyright?......Page 313
Testing the Underlying Rationale of Copyright......Page 315
The Moral Deterioration of Copyright......Page 318
The Problem of Derivative Creative Products......Page 319
The Blurred Contours of Copyright......Page 321
The Two-Edged Effect of New Technologies......Page 324
Copyright: Does It Do Authors Any Favours?......Page 325
Regulating the Scope of Copyright......Page 326
Is the Law an Ass?......Page 327
The Economic Philosophy of Copyright......Page 329
Copyright and Folklore......Page 331
Example: Leeches in the Village Pond......Page 332
Is a Market Without Copyright Possible?......Page 333
Copyright from the Viewpoint of Symbolic Economics......Page 335
What Is Copyleft?......Page 336
The Anatomy of the Long Tail......Page 339
Conclusion......Page 342
Overview of Trends in the Sound Recording Industry......Page 345
Some Overall Indicators of the Music Recording Market......Page 348
Stages in Creating an Audio Album......Page 350
Encoding (Digitisation) Technology......Page 352
Principles and Formats for Digital Sound Compression......Page 354
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3)......Page 355
OGG Vorbis......Page 356
Moving between Formats......Page 357
Music Sales Trends by Media Type......Page 358
The Evolution of Digital Data Media......Page 362
Key Players in the Music Recording Market......Page 363
The Major Labels......Page 364
Recent Mergers and Takeovers in the Sound Recording Industry......Page 368
Independent Sound Recording Companies (the Indie Labels)......Page 369
Music Publishers......Page 370
The Artistic Career Ladder......Page 372
The Contract Between the Performer and the Company: Ideology and Key Elements......Page 373
Performers Income and Outgoings......Page 374
Artists\' Sales Ratings......Page 375
Commercial Outlets and Channels for Promotion......Page 376
The Internet......Page 378
Retail Distribution of Compact Discs......Page 379
Distribution of Compact Discs Through Record Clubs......Page 381
Online Distribution of Music......Page 382
Formation of a Legal Online Music Market......Page 383
Development of the Online Music Market in Europe......Page 384
Problems of Creating a Legal Online Business......Page 385
Options for Buying Music on the Internet......Page 386
Price Formation and Price in the Music Industry......Page 387
Typical Production Costs of a CD......Page 388
The Retail Price of Music on CD and Online......Page 391
Economic Indicators of Online Stores......Page 392
The Price Trend......Page 393
Consumer Costs of Obtaining Music Through Various Channels......Page 394
Average per Capita Media Usage......Page 400
Buyers of Music Products by Age, %......Page 402
Distribution of Demand by Country......Page 403
The Scale of Pirate Markets......Page 404
The Extent of Piracy on Physical Media......Page 409
Levels of Music Piracy by Country, 2004......Page 410
Transportation Routes of Counterfeit Discs......Page 411
Illegal Distribution of Digital Music......Page 412
Influence of High-Speed Internet on the Sound-Recording Market......Page 414
What Are Peer-to-Peer Networks?......Page 416
The Evolution of Peer-to-Peer Networks......Page 417
Problems of Peer-to-Peer Network Clients......Page 422
Business Models of Peer-to-Peer Networks......Page 429
Parasite Programs......Page 430
Further Development of Peer-to-Peer Networks......Page 432
The Geographical Distribution of Peer-to-Peer Networks......Page 433
The Struggle Against Internet Piracy......Page 435
Principles of Protection......Page 436
Persistent Encryption of Content......Page 437
Informational and Educational Campaign......Page 438
Collaboration with Internet Providers......Page 440
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI, www.ifpi.org)......Page 441
The Russian Authors\' Society (RAO, www.rao.ru)......Page 442
Association of DVD Publishers (www.advdp.ru)......Page 443
IFPI Against Piracy......Page 444
Independent Civil Rights Organisations......Page 445
Recommender Systems Based on DSP Technologies......Page 446
eTantrum......Page 449
Tuneprint (www.tuneprint.com)......Page 450
MoodLogic (www.moodlogic.com)......Page 451
Musicmobs (www.musicmobs.com)......Page 452
MediaUnbound\'s AudioInsight (www.mediaunbound.com)......Page 453
Yahoo\'s Launchcast (http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/)......Page 454
Recommender Systems in e-Commerce......Page 455
Recommender Service on OD2 (www.ondemanddistribution.com)......Page 456
The eMusic Recommender Service (www.emusic.com)......Page 458
iRate Radio (http://irate.sourceforge.net)......Page 459
Users\' Ratings of Recommender Systems......Page 460
Personalised menus and content recommendations......Page 463
Juxtaposition of Profiles of People with Similar Tastes......Page 464
The MP3 Player Market......Page 465
CD Players Supporting the MP3 Format......Page 466
MP3 Players and Their Influence on the Development of the Music Market......Page 467
The Ringtone Market......Page 468
Discussion of Sampling in the Napster Case......Page 471
The Nature and Extent of Napster\'s Guilt......Page 472
25 April 2003......Page 473
19 August 2004......Page 474
7 November 2005......Page 475
May 2004......Page 476
8 July 2005......Page 477
15 December 2005......Page 478
Regional Lawsuits Against Peer-to-Peer Networks......Page 479
The Betamax Case......Page 480
GNU Free Documentation License......Page 482
Creative Commons (CC)......Page 483
EFF Open Audio License......Page 484
Mozilla Public License (MPL)......Page 485
MIT License......Page 486
The Research Topic......Page 487
Research Method......Page 489
Theatron Project......Page 490