Music as a Routine

INTRODUCTION

'Before twentieth-century technology, music was consumed only in the form of live performance via private salons or homes, concert halls, opera houses, and churches. Today, however, relatively low-cost, high-quality recording and reproduction equipment is widely available. Modern technology has taken music consumption into homes, cars, and workplaces of most citizens of industrialized nations via recorder music'1(Koneckni,1982).

Vladimir J. Konecni, through his quotation resumes music's evolution in few lines. Besides, he highlights the development in listening methods substantially due to CDs and in recent times to downloads.

By being increasingly present, music is changing our attitude and lifestyle. Personally, due to my passion for music I purchase it on a regular basis.

In order to develop the topic assigned I will examine, by basing on the three stages of the consumption process model2 the decisions that I made to buy a CD last month.

First of all, I will take into consideration factors as stimuli, desires and interest towards the product typical of the pre-purchase thought process.

In the second paragraph or rather the second stage of the consumption process I will focus my attention on the purchase moment by observing problems encountered and decisions token in order to buy the CD.

In the last paragraph I will evaluate my choice and I will analyze the purchase outcome and its relative positive and negative aspects.

1 See note 1

2 Solomon et al. (4th edition)(2010) Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective, Prentice Hall Europe, page 7

PRE PURCHASE MOMENT

Stimuli, desires and interest toward the product

I listened for the first time to the American indie rock band The Killers around 3 years ago.

Recently I have started to develop an increasing interest in this band and by listening to songs from YouTube and downloading some of them from the Internet, I became as a matter of fact a fan of The Killers.

Due to the impact that the band had on me, I felt the need to delve into the culture and history of this group. This factor combined with a special offer for the last CD of The Killers plus a poster that I saw in a shop influenced my decision of in buying the band's record. Going to depth, this has been the primary influential factor of my choice.

The principal reason that drove me in having a disc rather than keep on listening or downloading the songs from the Internet has been the interest in discovering special tracks that are not easy to find through the Internet. Moreover, I have been driven by the stimulus of listening to the songs on the CD following the order that the band had established because usually the songs follow a logical sequence and sometimes they can disclose a story.

A CD besides being a cultural and passion object it is also a reminder that can evoke in the past feelings and memories.

In addition to that, I wanted to expand my collection of CDs and, moreover, I desired to own an original compact disc.

In my opinion, lately we are increasingly surrounded by unofficial low-quality. Objectively, CDs' quality is higher than the music present on the Net, for this reason these two sound typologies cannot be placed on the same level. This specific characteristic of original CDs has influenced my decision to purchase The Killers' last disc. Unfortunately, high quality is regularly associated with high prices but I consider music as one of my main needs and due to emotional stimuli such as relaxation, joy, happiness, sadness that music provokes, I was and am willing to pay for it an higher price.

PURCHASE MOMENT

Information search, problem recognition, alternative evaluation and purchase decision

Stimuli and sensations mentioned in the previous paragraph have contributed to the decision to buy this product and later have had a key role in dealing with the problems aroused from this purchase.

The first evaluation I did, it was carried out on the Internet by reading the comments and the critiques about the CD's songs. According to the consumer culture theory3, resources and information are shared by the community and through the Net. I read the reviews of this CD and most of the buyers sustained the band's CD as a noteworthy product and for that reason I started to go round the shops.

The resistance in acquiring was influenced by price and relative possible alternatives.

By comparing the difference between buying a CD for an average of ten pounds and listening to it or downloading it from the