MUSIC PIRACY IN THE ERA OF STREAMING: A HABIT OF DOWNLOADING ILLEGALLY

Abstract

Piracy behavior persists even though music-streaming technologies are seen as the solution. In this study, I postulate that irrationality or ‘bounded rationality’ has a big part to play in piracy behavior. In particular, habit has been found to be a significant factor in piracy behavior. Using a new socio-cognitive model proposed by LaRose (2010), this study has investigated music piracy behavior as a function of dual-cognitive processes with automatic habit and conscious intention. It examines how habit plays a role in music piracy behavior among music streamers. A two-stage survey study was conducted with experienced music pirates recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N=201). In all, the findings suggest that people do not depend on rational thinking when they engage in illegal downloading behavior. This study has shown a different piracy model guided by social cognitive theory and dual-process model.