Week 2: Project Topic

For my Capstone Project I haven’t been able to decide what the topic should be. One idea I had was to discover how graduating college students use social media to gets jobs. The reason why this topic interests me is because I am graduating in May and am looking for jobs after college. I haven’t had much success primarily because I keep putting the task off (senioritis) and also because I haven’t put much effort in finding out the best ways to find jobs. Being able to thoroughly research this topic will not only benefit me but it will also help others who are in the same position as myself.

Another topic that I’ve been contemplating is music and consumer behavior. I chose this topic because I have an interest and have been working in the music industry for about three years now. For my last internship, I worked as a Market Research and Analysis intern for Warner Music Group. I assisted in facilitating and coordinating a research project that studied how consumers use music streaming services. For the Capstone Project, I would like to conduct a similar study and I intend to focus on how our generation/college students currently consume music online. I think I will most likely end up doing this topic so I found three research papers.

Research Paper #1: Consumer Taste Sharing Is Driving the Online Music Business and Democratizing Culture

Link – http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wg_home/uploads/511/11-ConsumerTasteSharing.pdf

This article is about how new features of online music stores, products and services enable music consumer’s the ability to share their music with their friends. Keywords are: taste-sharing, consumer-to-consumer, online music services, music fans. The researchers, Mike McGuire and Derek Slater, questioned the possible benefits of consumer-to-consumer music recommendation tools from business and cultural perspectives. They conducted various surveys with both primary and secondary research. Their findings conclude that being able to share music is the most critical criteria in selecting a music service to consumers. Also, music fans are heavily influenced by recommendations from their peers. This article is relatable to my Capstone Project topic because it discusses exactly what my topic is about.

Research Paper #2: Music Experience and Behavior in Young People

Link – http://i.content-review.com/s/ebf223550adb6d7c64fa176200d66ec8.pdf

David Bahanovich and Dennis Collopy, the authors of the article, conducted a survey on the music consumption habits of 14-24 year olds across the U.K. 1,808 participants were discovered from youth groups, secondary schools, universities, social networks and various music partners. The findings indicate that young people use computers as their main source of access to entertainment and that ownership of music is essential. Young people are open to streaming music online but are not so willing to pay for subscriptions. Although this study was conducted five years ago, it is still relevant to my topic on music streaming and consumer behavior.

Research Paper #3: Understanding Music Sharing Behavior on Social Network Services

Link – http://an.kaist.ac.kr/~jaimie/papers/lee-oir11-music.pdf

This paper strives to comprehend music sharing behavior on social network services. It examines a research model that pinpoints the influences of user motivations, such as self-expression and interactivity, on music sharing behavior in social network services through social motivation factors. Keywords are: music sharing, social networking service, social identity, social presence, interactivity, music, social networks. The authors collected data from several social network services users who purchase and share music on their social media. The study shows that interactivity, perceived ease of use, self‐expression, social presence, and social identity are significant positive predictors of music sharing intention on social network services. Although this paper has more focus on the social media aspect of music streaming, it is nonetheless an integral part in examining music streaming and consumer behavior.