Save your artist! Der Einfluss moralischer Appelle von Musikschaffenden auf die Akzeptanz von kostenpflichtigen Musikstreamingdiensten Save Your Artist! The Impact of Musicians' Moral Appeal on Acceptance of Paid Music Streaming Services

Abstract

In 2018, people in Germany listened to more music via digital than physical media for the first time. Still, many musicians are not convinced by music streaming services like Spotify. It seems that they do not see that music streaming is a sustainable concept which can be more profitable than selling CDs. In the last years, the technology acceptance research investigated more and more the use of music streaming services. The applicable theoretical background is the Technology Acceptance Model. Various studies showed that certain components of a software can enhance the acceptance. Additionally, the influence of moral appeals on legal and illegal digital music consumption was investigated because it was shown that moral judgement of users has an impact on their usage behaviour. Thus, the recent study wants to examine the interacting effects of technological acceptance and moral appeals of musicians, who claim that paid music streaming services is an important income for them, on use intentions. For this purpose, a 2x1-between-subjects online experiment was conducted. An interview with Ed Sheeran was manipulated to test the influence of a moral appeal on streaming use intention, moral judgement, and moral obligation in interaction with perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness. The results indicate that users who read a moral appeal show more positive moral judgement of streaming services. Furthermore, the streaming use intention was higher the higher moral obligation and perceived usefulness were. It seems that a prominent moral appeal can affect the perception and behavioural intentions of a user.