iPod, iTunes, 與數位音樂市場

Abstract

本文探討數位音樂市場的形成背景和產業特質，並透過一個理論模型，分析線上音樂商店與整體唱片業的互動關係。 線上音樂商店透過零賣(unbundle)單曲，使原本以專輯為銷售單位的唱片產業，有增加利潤的空間。 而數位版權管理(DRM)技術的使用，讓iPod成為線上音樂的「銷售通路」，且蘋果電腦掌握通路，成為擁有強大議價能力的音樂零售商。 在這樣的產業結構之下，CD唱片的價格成為唱片公司議價能力不足時，保護利潤的工具。 當唱片公司的議價能力上升，透過CD價格的調節，整體產業的銷售移向線上音樂商店，但是消費者福利和線上音樂唱片的利潤皆降低，而唱片公司的利潤增加。 另外，當專輯取向較為大眾化，唱片公司授權線上音樂銷售的門檻升高；當專輯以特定族群為銷售對象，授權門檻則較低。

This article is about the formation and properties of the new digital music industry, and a theoretical model in which the interaction between online music store and record label is analyzed. By unbundling songs, online music stores create new profit potentials for the music industry, which can only rely on sales of album. The use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies, however, makes iPods a channel for selling music (singles) online. And Apple Computer, Inc., with controls on iPods, becomes a music retailer with strong bargaining power. Due to the structure of industry, price of CDs serves as a tool for securing profits when the record labels have insufficient bargaining power, the increase of which will cause adjustment in CD prices and shift of sales from brick-and-mortar stores to online music stores, with the shrinkage in online music stores’ profit and consumer welfare, and an increase in labels’ profit. Besides, if the album is oriented to the mass, the threshold for labels’ licensing of music to online music stores is higher than if the album is focused on specific groups in the population.