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My-music my-self

Luke Greenacre (School of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia)
Lynne Freeman (School of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia)
Jared Filby (Australian Institute of Music, Sydney, Australia)
Taryn Ostrovsky (Australian Institute of Music, Sydney, Australia)

Qualitative Market Research

ISSN: 1352-2752

Article publication date: 12 January 2015

1977

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to use an extended model of self to understand the consumption of music and similar entertainment products.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth interviews using experts within the music field were used to penetrate the private worlds of musical theatre enthusiasts. Multiple qualitative analytic techniques were used to explore the different aspects of the self underlying music consumption.

Findings

Repeated exposure to musical theatre allowed subjects to refine their consumption of specific performances that reflect the preferred aspect of their extended self. It is found higher order consumption needs are an integral part of the extended self, and form an important basis for consumption decisions. Of particular importance is the reflection of the self that assists others in their consumption choices.

Originality/value

Present research widely recognises consumers are seeking more than just “entertainment” when they consume an entertainment product, but struggle to characterise what it is consumers are actually seeking. This research provides this insight through an elaboration of the extended self-model.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank and acknowledge all of the staff and students at the Australian Institute of Music who assisted with this project. With a special thanks to Thomas Heymann for his support of this project, and Natalie Herenda, Laura Manning, Daniel Neurath, Vanessa Hu, Brendan Moylan, Mardi Broomhead and Elliot Skeoch for their hard work. The authors would also like to thank Suresh Sood for his invaluable comments during the development of this paper.

Citation

Greenacre, L., Freeman, L., Filby, J. and Ostrovsky, T. (2015), "My-music my-self", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 145-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-02-2014-0017

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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