Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

The way music is consumed has changed drastically over the last 120 years, from live shows, to sheet music and piano rolls, to vinyls, to reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, CD, DVD and finally all digital audio file formats available(wav, flac, mp3, etc) but, over the last 25 years digital formats(downloads, streaming dominate the way mainstream music is accessed making up most of the revenue. In the music streaming market, consumers have many to choose from, Apple music, Amazon music, Deezer, Pandora(only in the U.S.), Napster, YouTube music and of course Spotify. One thing these  service providers share in common is that all offer a convenient access to a vast library of music, what has made Spotify stand out from the competition has been a strong social media presence since their release in the U.S. in 2011 by partnering with Facebook to acquire enough exposure and users, also Spotify was amongst the first legal streaming service available to challenge the illegal file share services like pirate bay, Napster. But because of it being just the place where the music is stored and accessed, Artists individually have the responsibility of generating an emotional connection with their fans. social sharing features