Impact of Digital Technology on the Christian Music Industry: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how the use of digital technology has impacted value creation in the music industry with focus on the Christian Music Industry of Ghana. This research argues that notwithstanding the universality of digital technologies in most human activities in recent years, there is still paucity in research in the area of the impact of digital technologies in the Christian Music Industry. Moreover, it was also revealed that very scarce research has been carried out in the area of digital technology’s impact on music industries from a multi-stakeholder perspective which will provide a more general viewpoint to the factors that generate value in the music industry. Also, very few studies in this area have been carried out in a developing country context. Furthermore, when pertinent literature was reviewed, it was revealed that most of the studies conducted in this area did not use any theoretical lens, concept or model. Thus, the need to undertake a study backed by theory. Hence, the adoption of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework in conducting this study. To adequately find solutions to the research problems came a need to develop a framework that fully covered the totality of this research and facilitated the achievement of the research purpose. Thus, the study developed a framework which had four parts: Technology Adoption factors which were adopted from UTAUT, music industry value chain activities, value gained using digital technologies (adopted from the E-business Value Creation Model) and lastly the digital technologies used in the music industries. The research was founded on the tenets of critical realism and employs a qualitative methodological approach, to garner the experiences of actors in the music industry value chain amidst the constraints of their context. Furthermore, in the quest to find answers to research questions raised, the study employed Miles and Huberman’s data analysis technique to analyse the data gathered from the actors across the music industry value chain. A total of nineteen (19) actors in the Christian music industry value chain were interviewed. These actors consisted of five music creators (songwriters, musicians, and artists), four music producers, five music distributors and five music consumers. In response to the nature of the use of digital technologies in the Ghanaian Christian music industry, it was suggestive from the findings that music creators use smartphones, iPads, laptops, and studio microphones to capture creative ideas that come to them especially when they are away from professional studios. Also, the findings revealed that the music producers use laptops, smartphones, studio microphones, studio monitors and DAWs like Logic Pro, Ableton, Fruity loops and Cubase to in music production. The finding was also indicative that music distributors depended heavily on laptops with internet connectivity. Digital distributors like Distrokid, TuneCore and CD baby are used to distribute songs to into digital music stores like iTunes, Spotify, and other music stores. On the issue of the factors that influence the nature of use of digital technologies in the Christian music industry of Ghana, the research findings was indicative that the use of digital technologies by the actors in the music industry helps them to attain gains.It was indicative from the research findings that actors in the music industry value chain had an understanding of the platform which makes it very easy for the actors to use the digital technologies in the creation, reproduction, distribution, and consumption.Furthermore, the process of learning to use digital technologies which were glaring in the responses given by the respondents proves that they learned how to use the digital technologies by watching others use it or by watching step by step tutorial videos on YouTube on how to use the technologies. For the contribution to research, the study fills the gap of the rarity of research work done on digital technologies’ impact in the music industry in Ghana and developing economies especially Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. This study in relation to practice provides a roadmap for firms and individuals who want to integrate the digital technologies in any area of the music industry value chain. Finally, for policy the study presents regulatory agencies responsible for music in Ghana with an overview of the digital music industry. It also provides lessons on how musicians can generate revenue through the access of other markets other than their local markets and their ability to make profitable gains from their musicianship with the help of digital technologies. The originality of this study is that it is arguably one of the few empirical studies that have been conducted on the digital technologies impact on the music industry in Ghana with emphasis on the Christian music industry It is recommended that further studies should consider a single case or a multiple case study approach to scrutinize the impacts of digital technologies in the Christian music industry of Ghana. Future studies may also consider espousing the quantitative approach in order to have a greater sample size to make a generalization concerning this phenomenon.