Customer Satisfaction in Music

In the music industry, customer satisfaction is a very crucial factor to a record label and its artists.  For example, when a customer buys a compact disc or downloads the album from an online store, the customer wants an album with full quality from the artist.  In the past years, the music business is in a state of crisis due to customers only buying singles instead of the whole albums.  Also, there are many websites to download torrents and free music.  I could easily say that customers may stop downloading free music if they were getting a great product from the artist and the label, but that is not the case.  The price of compact discs has risen up to $20 and hiking up the prices would lower the gratification of the customer.  But according to an article in Muzak, playing music in a retail setting would increase the customer’s satisfaction.  I understand that prices must be raised to have a profitable business, but music retailers should add more content to the products for customers.

According to an article in Media Journal, there are different aspects of how customer satisfaction is distinguished within having a physical product, file sharing, or downloading from online stores.  For instance, with productivity, file sharing takes away the value of the product.  With pricing, buying music online preferred rather than at a retail store.  With the customer in mind, buying music online is easier than going to the retail store.  It saves gas and the hassle of not having the product at the store.  However, actually having a physical music product feels like one owns a piece of the artist’s life.  I would prefer that record labels give the customer more than just the music product.  For instance, merchandise like artist t-shirts or ticket giveaways would entice the customer.