Market-Mediated, Access-Based Consumption of Digital Music
Katie Young
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ experiences of market-mediated, access to digital virtual goods (DVGs), more specifically, of digital music.  In-depth interviews with ten adult Spotify users were conducted, lasting on average forty minutes.  The study revealed that ownership is still important to the participants whilst in the context of digital music, however it was manifested differently.  Our participants expressed notions of re-materialisation, ownership as a form of control, co-use of both accessed and owned items with defined boundaries between the two, and lastly, concerns regarding the fragility of access-based consumption.  In light of the findings, this highlights potential issues for the industry, to facilitate and maximise customer enjoyment in access-based consumption of digital music.ÂReferences
Ahuvia, A.C., 2005. Beyond the Extended self: Loved Objects and Consumers’ Identity Narratives. Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (6), 171-184.
Appadurai, A., 1986. The social life of things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Calbridge: Cambridge University Press, 3-63.
Arnould E.J. and Thompson C.J., 2005. Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31,868–882.
Babbie, E., 2010. The Basics of Social Research. 5th ed. California : Cengage Learning, 208.
Bardhi, F. and Eckhardt, G., 2012. Access-Based Consumption: The Case of Car Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (4), 881-898.
Bardhi, F. Eckhardt, G. and Arnould , E.J., 2012. Liquid Relationship to Possessions. Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (3).
Belk, R.W., 1985. Materialism: Trait Aspects of Living in the Material World. Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (12), 265-279.
Belk, R. W., 1988. Possessions and the extended self. Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 139–168.
Belk, R.W., 2007. Why Not Share Rather Than Own?. The ANNALS of the American of Political and Social Science, 611 (5), 126-140.
Belk, R.W. Ger, G, and Askegaard, S., 2003. The Fire of Desire: A Multisited Inquiry into Consumer Passion. Journal of Consumer Research, 30 (3), 326-351.
Belk, R.W. Wallendorf, M. and Sherry J.F., 1989. The Sacred and the Profane in Consumer Behavior: Theodicy on the Odyssey. Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (6), 1-38.
Campbell, C., 2005. The Craft Consumer; Culture, craft and consumption in a postmodern society. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5, 23-45.
Chen, Y., 2009. Possession and Access: Consumer Desires and Value Perceptions Regarding Contemporary Art Collection and Exhibit Visits. Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (4), 925–40.
Cresswell, J.W., 2007. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, Choosing Among Five Approaches. (2nd ed.). Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Rochberg-Halton, E., 1981. The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Denegri-Knott, J. and Molesworth, M., 2010. Digital virtual consumption: Concepts and practices. Consumption Markets and Culture, 13 (2), 109–132.
Denegri-Knott, J. and Molesworth, M., 2012. Digital Virtual Consumption (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organization and Technology). Oxon: Routledge.
Denegri-Knott, J. Watkins, R. and Wood, J., 2012. Transforming Digital Virtual Goods into Meaningful Posessions. In: Denegri-Knott, J. and Molesworth, M., (eds) Digital Virtual Consumption (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organization and Technology), 76-92.
Denegri-Knott, J. and Zwick, D., 2012.Tracking presumption work on eBay: reproduction of Desire and the Challenge of Slow Re-McDonaldization. American Behavioural Scientist, 56 (4), 439-458.
Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y., 2005. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. California: Sage.
De Ruyter, K. and Scholl, N., 1998. Positioning qualitative market research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 1 (1), 7-14.
Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B., 1978. The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption. Basic Books: New York.
Durgee, J. and O’Connor, G., 1995. An Exploration into Renting as Consumption Behavior. Psychology and Marketing, 12 (2), 89–104.
Epp, A. and Price, L., 2010. The storied life of singularized objects: Forces of agency and network transformation. Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (5), 820–837.
Faugier, J. and Sargeant, M., 1997. Sampling hard to reach populations. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26, 790-797.
Firat, F.A. and Dholakia, N., 1998. Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theatres of Consumption. Routledge: London.
Fournier, S., 1998. Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship
Theory in Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (3), 343-373
Geertz, C., 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. London: Harper Collins.
Goulding, C., 2000. Grounded Theory Methodology and Consumer Behaviour, Procedures, Practice and Pitfalls. In: Hock, S.J. and Meyer, R.J., Advances in Consumer Research. Association for Consumer Research, 261-266.
Gummesson, E., 2003. All research is interpretive. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 18 (6-7), 482-492.
Harwood, T. and Garry, T., 2010. It’s Mine! Participation and Ownership within Virtual Value Co-creation Environments. Journal of Marketing Management, 26 (3–4), 290–301.
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 2012. Digital music report 2012. Available from: http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/DMR2012.pdf/ [Accessed 3 February 2013].
Kirk, D. and Sellen, A., 2008. On Human Remains, Excavating the Home Archive. Microsoft Technical Report, MSR-TR-2008–8.
Kopytoff, I., 1986. The cultural biography of things: Commoditization as process. In: Appadurai, A., (Ed.), The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 64–91.
Kvale, S., 1994. Ten Standard Objections to Qualitative Research Interviews. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 25 (2), 147-17.
Law, J., 2004. After Method: Mess in Social Science Research. Routledge: London.
Lastovicka, J. L. and Fernandez, K. V., 2005. Three paths to disposition: The movement of meaningful possessions to strangers. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 813–832.
Lehandovirta, V. Johnson, M. and Wilska, T., 2009. Virtual consumerism: Case habbo hotel. Information, Communication and Society, 12 (7), 1059–1079
Maguadda, P., 2012. What Happens to Materiality in Digital Virtual Consumption?. In: Denegri-Knott, J. and Molesworth, M., Digital Virtual Consumption (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organization and Technology). Oxon: Routledge, 111-126.
Marx, K., 1930. Capital. London: Dent
Mauss, M., 1970. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. Cohen & West: London
McCracken, G. 1990. Culture and consumption: New approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
McCracken, G., 1986. Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods. Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (6), 71-84
Miles, M. and Huberman, M., 1984. Qualitative Data Analysis. Beverly Hills CA: Sage.
Miller, D., 1987. Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Backwell:
Oxford.
Molesworth, M. and Watkins, R., 2012. Attachment to Digital Virtual Possessions in Videogames. Research in Consumer Behaviour, 14, 153-171
Muniz, A.M. and. O’Guinn, T.C., 2001. Brand Community. Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (4), 412–32
Orlikowski, W. J. and Baroudi, J. J., 1991. Studying information technology in organizations: research approaches and assumptions. Information Systems Research, 2 (1), 1-28
Óskarsson, P.J., 2012. Eve Online as Meaningful Virtual World. In: Denegri-Knott, J. and Molesworth, M., Digital Virtual Consumption (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organization and Technology). Oxon: Routledge, 207-213
Parsons, E. 2006. Dealing in second-hand goods: creating meaning and value. European Advances in Consumer Research, 7, 189-194
Peñaloza, L., 1994. Acculturation and Consumer Behavior: Building Cultural Bridges Through Consumption. Advances in Consumer Research, 36, 16-19
Richins, M. L., 1994. Special possessions and the expression of material values. Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (3), 522–533
Rifkin, J., 2000. The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life Is a Paid for Experience, New York: Penguin.
Ritson, M. and Elliott, R., 1999. The social uses of advertising: An ethnographic study of adolescent advertising audiences. Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (3), 260–277
Ritzer, G., 2001. Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards and Casinos. Sage: London.
Schouten, J.W., 1991. Selves in Transition: Symbolic Consumption in Personal rites of Passage and Identity Reconstruction. Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (3), 412-425
Shields, R., 2003. The virtual. London: Routledge
Siddiqui, S. and Turley, D., 2006. Extending the Self in a Virtual World. Advances in Consumer Research, 33, 647-648
Slater, D., 1997. Consumer Culture and Modernity. Polity: Cambridge
Slater, D., 2002. Markets, materiality and the “new economyâ€. In: Metcalfe, S. Warde, A. (eds.). Market Relations and the Competitive Process. Manchester University Press: Manchester, 95-113
Snare, F., 1972. The Concept of Property. American Philosophical Quarterly, 9 (2), 200–206
Swain, J. Heyman, B. and Gillman, M., 1998. Public Research, Private Concerns: Ethical issues in the use of open-ended interviews with people who have learning difficulties. Disability and Society, 13 (1) 21-36
Thompson, C. J. and Troester, M., 2002. Consumer Value Systems in the Age of Postmodern Fragmentation: The case of the Natural Health Microculture. Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (3) 550-571
Thompson, C. J. Locander, W. B. and Pollio, H. R., 1989. Putting consumer experience back into consumer research: The philosophy and method of existential-phenomenology. Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (2), 133–146
Wang, J. Zhao, X. and Bamossy, G.J., 2009. The sacred and profane in online gaming: A netnographic enquiry of online gamers. In: Wood, N.T. and Solomon, M.R., (Eds.), AU:3, Virtual social identity and consumer behavior, 109–124
Young, M.M. and Wallendorf M., 1989. Ashes to ashes, dust to duest: conceptualizing consumer disposition of possessions. In: Childers, T.L., (eds) American Marketing Association Winter Educators’ Conference, Chicago: American Marketing Association, 33-39