Influence of intellectual property infringement on Thailand’s music industry income

Abstract

In spite of the copyright law in Thailand, where distributing or obtaining a copyrighted work without the permission of the copyright holder is against the law, illegal streaming and downloading of music is dramatically increasing. This changing behaviour of consumers has an incredible impact on the music industry as a whole. Our paper analyses the influence of intellectual property infringement on Thailand’s music industry income. The research tools employed in this study are a questionnaire and an in-depth interview to enable analysis. We found that, after the evolution of musical technology in the 1990s, internet-based music consumption has become significantly more popular, and increasingly, consumers are streaming, sharing, and discovering digital music all across the globe, including in Thailand. With this new development of digital music, the dynamics of the music industry have been affected significantly, both in terms of income and number of entrepreneurs. Multiple regression analysis results show that the amount of unauthorized downloading of copyrighted music has a negative effect on Thailand’s music industry income. In contrast, the number of property disputes from illegal downloading of copyrighted music has a positive effect on this industry income. The results suggest that entrepreneurs should pay attention to warranty, information on products and prices and security of financial transactions in order to encourage consumer authorized online purchasing. In addition, law enforcement can help achieve the goal of decreasing online music piracy.