Another one bites the dust?!

Literature points out that digitization can be devastating for the record industry. This is why many authors promote alternative business strategies, such as the sale of complements, live concert tickets or vinyl records, to make record companies sustainable in the digital era. This indicates that these digital times do not only pose threats, they also bring opportunities for record companies. However, the topic of how and why the (Dutch) record industry uses these new digital possibilities of the digital era to find new ways towards profitability is still understudied. This is why the current study digs into this ‘research gap’ by conducting a quantitative analysis of the use of new digital possibilities on the websites of Dutch record companies and using this data to be able to find out how possible differences in the use of these digital possibilities might be explained. The results of the study indicate that record companies are already implementing these new digital possibilities, but a lot can still be gained. The results also indicate that differences in the use of these possibilities correlates with the competitiveness of the sector, the age of the record company and the genre of music the record company produces.