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Streaming Stimulates the Live Concert Industry: Evidence from YouTube

Author

Listed:
  • Finn Christensen

    (Department of Economics, Towson University)

Abstract
I exploit the removal of Warner Music content from YouTube in the first three quarters of 2009 as a plausible natural experiment to investigate the impact of streaming on live concert sales. I find that this Warner-YouTube blackout had statistically and economically negative effects on Warner artists relative to non-Warner artists. Specifically, relative revenues and prices were lower and relative attendance was not higher. These effects were stronger among artists who recently had a song in the Billboard Hot 100 and among those who were more frequently searched on YouTube. These findings suggest that the diffusion of streaming has stimulated the demand for live concerts. The evidence is also consistent with a differentiated Bertrand model of ticket pricing in which prices are strategic complements and prices and streaming penetration gives rise to increasing differences in the artist profit function. More broadly, the paper is an example of how the results from the monotone comparative statics literature can be adapted for use with difference-in-differences estimation.

Suggested Citation

  • Finn Christensen, 2021. "Streaming Stimulates the Live Concert Industry: Evidence from YouTube," Working Papers 2021-01, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:tow:wpaper:2021-01
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Dylan Thompson, 2024. "Front row or backstage? Evidence on concert ticket preferences from a discrete choice experiment," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(3), pages 463-491, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Live music; streaming; digitization; monotone comparative statics; refutability.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L8 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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