1. Introduction
This report focuses on the impact that the development of the peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing model has had on the commercial e-music industry.
Firstly, an overview of e-business and the evolution of the Internet are presented. This is followed by a short discussion and classification of business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) market types. The marketing mix elements of price, product, promotion and place for digital content e-music businesses are then explored. Customer value, implications for the value chain and related ethics are then considered. Finally recommendations will be presented.
This report is based on a survey of recent literature and text books on the topic of P2P networks and the e-music industry.
2. E-business and the Internet
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E-business can be defined as “the transformation of key business processes through the use of Internet technologies” (Chaffy, Ellis-Chadwick, Johnston & Mayer 2006, p.11). In e-business, information and communications technology (ICT) is used to enhance business processes spanning the entire value chain and may include internal systems such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning, communication and collaboration tools such as e-mail (Andam 2003), and e-commerce which is the performance of transactions electronically (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-Levi 2003).
The growth of the Internet and its related technologies has been fundamentally challenging to the recorded music industry. Through product digitisation, it has presented a new, more efficient distribution channel and has in part transformed the ...