Despite a consensus that sales of physical albums have declined with the increasing prevalence of digital music, this seemingly unequivocal observation may not be true. Physical formats still occupy a fraction of the market, with a noticeable increase in the sales of physical albums in a few countries where digital media is predominant. This study empirically examines the impact of two online music channels (streaming and downloading) on physical album sales in the South Korean music market. By utilizing a unique dataset representing nationwide music sales, our empirical findings suggest that the growth in digital music services can be positively associated with an increase in physical album sales. In particular, this finding is more salient for male, solo, and lesser-known artistes. This empirical evidence implies that burgeoning music streaming services (access-based digital consumption) may lead to another ownership-based physical consumption. Our findings provide useful managerial implications for practitioners in countries where streaming services are growing.

尽管人们一致认为，随着数字音乐的普及，实物唱片的销量已经下降，但这种看似毫不含糊的观察可能并非如此。物理格式仍然占据市场的一小部分，在一些以数字媒体为主的国家中，物理专辑的销售显着增加。这项研究从经验上考察了两个在线音乐频道（流媒体和下载）对韩国音乐市场实体唱片销售的影响。通过利用代表全国音乐销售的独特数据集，我们的经验发现表明，数字音乐服务的增长与实物唱片销售的增长呈正相关。尤其是，这一发现对于男性，独奏和鲜为人知的艺术家而言更为突出。该经验证据表明，新兴的音乐流服务（基于访问的数字消费）可能会导致另一种基于所有权的物理消费。我们的发现为流服​​务正在增长的国家的从业人员提供了有用的管理启示。