Online Music Research Project

The research stream involves gaining an understanding of how Internet-enabled sharing technologies (such as Napster and Kazaa) have impacted the markets for digital goods such as software and music, and developing strategic initiatives for organizations to compete effectively in the new information economy.

Our data capture research component leverages the fact that individuals leave a significant “footprint” online via their online sharing and downloading activities. These sharing forums often use proprietary and specialized interfaces to better cater to the user groups, and this creates significant challenges in the development of data capture algorithms. Additional challenges arise from the sheer volume and variety of data that is needed to address the research questions. The data collection entails the use of 8 high-end dedicated computers that work round the clock, collecting and compiling over 50,000 data observation points each and every day. State-of-the-art software modules have been developed to capture and organize the data.

The data processing involves cross validating with market and other third-party data sources, data cleaning and transformation into an industry-leading Oracle data warehouse. Specialized algorithms have been developed to perform these processes, with the additional goals of data security and providing flexibility for querying and analysis over the Internet.

Our expertise enabled us to employ analytical and data mining techniques to address critical multi-disciplinary issues regarding piracy and intellectual property controversies in the music industry, including: Economics and Statistics -- investigating the impact of digital technologies on music superstars, and developing new models of online search and sampling behavior, along with new licensing structures for the music industry to increase profits; Marketing -- understanding the effects of online sharing and potential sampling on sales of music albums, and developing forecasting models to predict the market success of newly released albums; Computer Science -- estimating the impact of new technologies on the lifecycle of music albums; Legal issues -- testing and evaluating the impact of music industry lawsuits on the social behavior of online music sharers.

The research in this area has generated wide interest from the popular press, and has been reported and discussed in various outlets including Washington Post , BusinessWeek , Der Spiegel and a number of radio and television outlets. The team at UCONN is widely regarded as one of the leading research groups in the country studying the impacts of online sharing of intellectual property. The team has extensive collaborative relationships with faculty at universities such as Carnegie Mellon, Texas , Arizona , and SUNY Buffalo.

Examples of Interdisciplinary Research Questions from Online Music Sharing Data

Communication Science:

•  Seek to understand consumer behavior and music consumption patterns;

Marketing:

•  Utilize deep data analytics on log files to develop decisioning processes that enhance music retailers' CRM (customer relationship management);

Computer Science and OPIM:

•  Develop and implement advanced data processing algorithms to effectively manage and utilize massive micro-level data sets on individual music consumers/sharer's.

List of Journal Publications

Bhattacharjee, S., Gopal, R. D., Lertchwara, K., and Marsden, J., “Whatever Happened To Payola? An Empirical Analysis Of Online Music Sharing?” forthcoming in Decision Support Systems.

Gopal, R. D., Bhattacharjee, S., and Sanders, G. L., “Do Artists Benefit from Online Music Sharing?” forthcoming in Journal of Business.

Bhattacharjee, S., Gopal, R. D., Lertchwara, K., and Marsden, J., “Using P2P Sharing Activity to Improve Business Decision Making: Proof of Concept for Estimating Product Life-Cycle,” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications , Vol. 4, Issue 1, Pages 14-20, Spring 2005.

Bhattacharjee, S., Gopal, R. D., Lertchwara, K., and Marsden, J., “Retailer Strategies in the Presence of Online Music Sharing,” forthcoming in Journal of Management Information Systems.

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal, K. Lertwachara, and J.R. Marsden, “ Impact of Technological Advancement on the Life-Cycle of Albums on the Billboard Chart ”, under review in Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA).

Bhattacharjee, S., Gopal, R. D., Lertchwara, K., and Marsden, J., “Impact of Legal Threats on Individual Behavior: An Analysis of Music Industry Actions and Online Music Sharing,” forthcoming in Journal of Law and Economics.

Bhattacharjee, S., Gopal, R. D., Lertchwara, K., Marsden, J., and Telang, R., “The Effect of Digital Sharing Technologies on Music Markets: A Survival Analysis of Albums on Ranking Charts,” under second review, Management Science.

Bhattacharjee, S., Gopal, R. D., Lertchwara, K., and Marsden, J., “Stochastic Dynamics of Music Album Lifecycle: An Analysis of the New Music Landscape,” under second review, International Journal on Human-Computer Studies.

Conference Proceedings

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal, J.R. Marsden and R. Telang, “Do Emerging Digital Technologies Really Hurt the Music Market? An Empirical Analysis of Music Album Survival”, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), INFORMS, November 2005.

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal and J.R. Marsden, “Impact of Technology on Music Album Life-Cycle Changes: Lessons for Intellectual Property Rights”, Information Security in the Knowledge Economy, Third Annual Security Symposium, Arizona State University, September 2005.

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal, K. Lertwachara, and J.R. Marsden, “Impact of Online P2P Sharing Networks on the Life Cycle of Albums on the Billboard Chart”, CORS-INFORMS Joint International Meeting, Banff, May 2004.

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal, K. Lertwachara, and J.R. Marsden, “Economics of Online Music”, International Conference on Electronic Commerce, Pittsburgh, Oct 2003.

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal, K. Lertwachara, and J.R. Marsden, “Internet Data - Tracking Individual Market and Non-Market Choices and Actions”, workshop on Revolutionary Strategies And Tactics In Research Design And Data Collection For E-Business Management Research, International Conference on Electronic Commerce, Pittsburgh, Oct 2003.

Bhattacharjee, S., R. D. Gopal, K. Lertwachara, and J. Marsden, “No More Shadow Boxing with Online Music Piracy: Strategic Business Models to Enhance Revenues”, Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-36), Hawaii, Jan 2003.

Bhattacharjee, S., R.D. Gopal, G.L. Sanders, “The Internet and Free Music: How Can The Recording Industry Turn This Minefield In Its Favor?”, Proceedings of the Decision Sciences Institute National Conference, San Francisco, Nov 2001.