Description

Bachelor thesis "Present and Future of Mobile Entertainment and its Implications on Music Business". The thesis introduces the reader to the new status of our everyday life entertainment, the role of technology in this transformation and the economic effects and motives behind theses moves, the changes in the value chain and the impact of Napster and the dot com bubble as a catalyst in these processes.

In chapter one there is an overview of the MP3 technology, the psycho-acoustic model and why MP3 technologies are useful in our digital life.

In chapter two we examine Napster as an IT architecture and the development to a business entity as Napster Inc, with all the implications with the record business.

In chapter three is examined the decline of CD albums and the correlation to other entertainment media, like DVDs and video games and the competition of the entertainment dollar. Also discussed the strategy of some record companies to reduce singles releases afraid the cannibalization of album sales.

In chapter four is captured how the dot com bubble and its after effects influenced directly and/or inderctly the whole media and music business with the gigantic M&A and demergers.

In chapter five is examined the iTunes Music Store. The 99ct price model and the marginal loss/profit of the songs along with the marginal profit of the ipods. Comparing the current market conditions with the ones of the last century and Apple Computers with Philips Electronics, that entered the music business in order to sell its record players.

The last part of the thesis is an attempt to capture the future trends and developments. The concept of the Celestial Jukebox (every recording, everywhere, anytime) along with the social networking of mobile devices. Took as reference the tunA project, Sound Pryer, Push!Music to create an abstract of the future functionalities of our mobile devices. Using as reference the Malleable Mobile Music and Sonic City projects to make a snapshot of some possible new ways of content re-creation (and/or creation) with the use of mobile devices and their interaction with the environment and/or other users.