The Music industry's new value chains

We investigate the implications for the future value chain structure of the music industry of the disruptive technology, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. We show that the new value chain for the performer allows the performer to add value to their product before negotiating with record companies, although the new value chain for the songwriter is seen to be not as advantaged. We consider what the new value chain might be for the record companies whose role may now become that of a competitive distributor rather than that of a dominant distributor. The implications of this analysis are that the creation of new value chains is occurring in the music industry and these have considerable impact on the profitability of old chain structures and their key participants. The idea that music will be "free" is shown to be an improbable result.