Working Title: With an Explanation
Denis Mazepa
Cleveland State University
ENG 102
Dr. Gagich
December 14, 2025
Abstract
Working Title: With an Introduction
Introduction
This topic will be focusing on digital streaming and its effects on the sale of physical
media. “The goal of the music industry is to offer multiple services in one location. With the rise
of technology advancements, technology is always incorporating new technologies, from
manufacturing to distribution. For the last few years, digital streaming has been on the rise with
the development in technology” (Walsh, 6). As a result, this attention to convenience has shifted
focus away from the consumption of physical media. Nowadays, people see physical media as an
inconvenience, needing certain equipment in order to consume physical discs or even records
and thus has created a huge preference for more “on demand” and convenient options. The
following research aims to explore exactly how the relationship between streaming and physical
media sales behaves and how the rising popularity of streaming services has affected the sale of
physical media, and whether it is a negative or positive effect.
Research Question
“The impact of music streaming services and how they have affected physical
purchasing” (Lennon, 2).
Literature Review
In this literature review, I will be discussing the effect that the popularity of streaming
services has on the sale of physical media. “On demand” streaming services have been on the
rise since 2015 and have slowly but surely been replacing physical media in many cases (such as
DVDs, CDs, tapes, and vinyl).
Theme 1 of Lit. Review
Theme 2 of Lit. Review
Methodology
For my methodology, I will be utilizing a survey style to obtain my information. This
information can or will include whether people prefer physical media or streaming services, how
often they use either format, or if they have ever thought about using either formats
Participants
My participants will be individuals that avidly consume media such as music listening or
watching movies. Ideally, I want to have my participants consume a certain number of hours
worth of media. These participants should also be both male and female who are 20-30 years old.
With these factors, I believe that I can receive a greater sample size while also getting more
varied results in my data collection.
Proposed Data Collection
For my data collection, I will be utilizing both quantitative data. My data collection will
utilize questions such that will inquire about the participant’s preference. This will be done
through a multiple choice questionnaire. It was determined that multiple choice questions were
the most optimal question format to utilize because it is easier to quantify and helps me look for
the data that I specifically need. I believe that having the questions in a more open ended, and
qualitative format could interfere with the data that I am trying to collect while multiple choice
questions can put the participants into responding with certain information that I need to analyze.
Proposed Data Analysis
Using the collected data from my multiple choice survey, I will quantify each response
from each participant by their responses. I will also utilize the tools at my disposal to group each
participant by age group. This way, I can observe trends among each age group which can
include which age group prefers streaming over purchasing physically and vice versa.
Gathering Informed Consent
Limitations
Appendix
References
Walsh, L. (2024, July 19th) The impact of music streaming services and how they
have affected physical purchasing. National College of Ireland, 1-35,
https://norma.ncirl.ie/7651/1/lennonwalsh.pdf
Lee, M., Choi, H., Cho, D., & Lee, H. (2016). Cannibalizing or complementing?. The impact of
online streaming services on music record sales. Procedia Computer Science, 91, 662-671.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187705091631359X
Koh, B., Murthi, B. P. S., & Raghunathan, S. (2014). Shifting demand: online music piracy,
physical music sales, and digital music sales. Journal of Organizational Computing and
Electronic Commerce, 24(4), 366-387.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10919392.2014.956592
Aguiar, L., & Waldfogel, J. (2018). As streaming reaches flood stage, does it stimulate or
depress music sales?. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 57, 278-307.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718717301753
Bhoot, G. (2017). Music Industry Sales: How streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music
and TIDAL affect album sales.
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=joursp
Coffey, A. (2016) The impact that music streaming services such as Spotify,
Tidal and Apple Music have had on consumers, artists and the music industry
itself. https://www.scss.tcd.ie/publications/theses/diss/2016/TCD-SCSSDISSERTATION-2016-027.pdf.