The case of disruptive technology

Résumé du document

There are more people who are listening to music. Nowadays it is everywhere and every when: you are going to take your bus, you are traveling from a country to another, you are making sport... Each reason is the right one to listen to music. It is true that with the development of new technologies, music industry in general has subjected an incredible evolution. But each evolution of course could lead to many problems too. This sector is facing major problems. It is spending much money each year in order to defend itself against downloading of illegal files. Many countries, especially France, are protecting more and more artists and are fighting against "pirates".
In this final assignment we are going to deal with the subject of disruptive technology: in what the development of new technologies particularly since the beginning of the 80's, is typically a problem for this sector?

In the first part, we are going to see the different supports where music was recorded historically and then the new ones. Secondly we are going to analyze the music market globally with its opportunities and threats and thirdly the conclusion of this entire study.

This is the notion the case will articulated around so in order to reach the goals we are going to see in this study, we have at first to define the notion.
First definition of the concept: disruptive technology is a term coined by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new technology that unexpectedly displaces an established technology.

Extraits

[...] One of the most important one is the development of the digital technology. Firstly we are going to see the two different historic supports where music has been recorded in the past, the microgroove record and the cassette tape and more recently the compact disc and MP3 technology. It will help us to understand the whole problems music industry has and the reason why. The case of microgroove record This is the oldest and historic way of recording for the purist. [...]

[...] It represent hours of creation and development. Where you want to get a car you have to pay for it because there is hours of production and raw materials. So why wouldn't it be the same case for music? Artist have instruments and their creativity. Issued from Future of the Music Industry” (Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5-2011): Bohdan Pikas, Anastasia Pikas and Candice Lymburner Development of new “music consumers” The development of music file sharing has not to be seen just on a negative way. [...]

[...] The “Walkman” I have decided to choose the “walkman” of the Japanese brand Sony because it was the first personal stereo in the world and I had one when I was a kid that my parents offered me for my birthday. It was the old cassette tape one that each kid was dreaming about. This product I had from the brand Sony, synonym of quality of sound and manufacturing. Now it is totally outdated: from a design, quality and technology point of view. I still have it but I know I can't use them anymore: if I wanted to create a compilation of my favorite songs, I can't found a virgin cassette tape and I can't find recorder. [...]

[...] That is why more and more of them are listening to it many hours a day. We are going to take an easy example: music in common transport. When people are taking the common transport every day, there is always lots of noise. Music is a kind of escape of this noise and is releasing the pressure before or after a working day. In the following chart, we are seeing the evolution of CD sales from 1998 to 2008 in the largest markets and in Austria in comparison with each national market's best year (source: IFPI 1998-2008). [...]

[...] The cassette tape was used for another application which was the recording of data on the first personal computers (PC). Conclusion on analogical technologies That was the beginning of recording. The main problem it had was that there were many mechanicals elements in movement so that it had some reliability problems when you were moving especially with a personal stereo. It consumed more energy too in term of battery life and the reproduction lost more and more quality from a record to another. [...]