Still debating whether or not it makes sense to share your music on the Internet?

A report to be published in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising reveals that sharing longer, higher quality free music samples tends to engage more listeners and reduce the number of free riders:

Yanbin Tu in the Department of Marketing at Robert Morris University, Moon Township, Pennsylvania and Min Lu in the Department of Finance and Economics, have carried out a study into digital music samples. They explored the determinants of the five effectiveness dimensions, i.e., evaluation, Willingness-to-Pay (WTP), perceived sample usefulness, sample cost and the likelihood of a consumer being a “free rider”, of online digital music samples.

Their survey analysis suggests the seemingly obvious conclusion that for music samples, the most effective sample is high quality and is a longer rather than a shorter sample.

“Digital music samples with a higher quality and longer segments were found to increase the sampler’s music evaluation and make the evaluation process more useful,” the researchers say.

While the report highlights the value of full track downloads as a promotional tool, it also acknowledges that music sharing can be a catch-22:

There is no free bubble gum sample that only produces half-size bubbles or shampoo sachet that will not wash your hair completely. But an unrestricted download or full-quality music file would be no different from the full purchase.

Therein lies the twenty-first century marketing problem

via Hypebot, image: rubicon