Changing Consumption Behavior of Net Generation and the Adoption of Streaming Music Services : Extending the Technology Acceptance Model to Account for Streaming Music Services

Abstract: The rise of the streaming music services and the decreasing importance of physical distribution is an inevitable change that the industry has been facing, which is resulting from the so-called internet revolution over the past few years. Through years, the music business has already shifted to online platform with the birth of file sharing. Today, a generation who had grown up digital came to age. Members of this generation have different consumption habits than before, and have different motives toward consumption. The consumer behavior of this group was examined at different stages of the digital revolution during last decade. However, although there is a wide number of researches have examined online consumer behavior and the adoption file-sharing technologies, no study investigated the use of streaming music services. Therefore, in order to understand the changing consumption behavior of the net generation music consumers, and to under-stand the use of streaming music services, this study extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to account the streaming music services. A questionnaire based empirical study was administrated among the users of Sweden based streaming music service Spotify. Results confirm that there is a significant relationship between users‟ perceived usefulness of service use, and their attitude toward using and their behavioral intention to use. In addition, it is also confirmed by the results that advertisement/charge, flow, and social influence are effective in explaining the motives of users‟, and the use of streaming music services. Furthermore, according to the findings of the study streaming music services have a positive effect on decreasing the music piracy.