Question_3_Paper1_Dec_2010

Return to Paper1 Questions ** Area of Impact: Arts, Entertainment and Leisure **

**1. **Today, more and more people are buying their music through an online system instead of going and buying a CD at a store. There are many B2C services that have made this possible through websites or applications.

//(a) //Define the term //B2C//.

B2C (Business to costumer) refers to the process of a company selling their goods to costumers (people) trough the internet

//(b) //Describe the process involved in buying and downloading new songs to your computer.

To buy a song online, you may need first to access the online shop, then you´ll have to log in (if asked) and give personal info. like your city and country, then you may select the song and chose a paying method, this may be by credit card, banc account/ PayPal or even a prepaid card (store credit). When doing the purchase, you may need to give out some information (mostly if it´s your first time) and then you may be given access to download the music file. (the download restrictions may vary between stores)

//(c) //Explain **one** concern that may rise to clients when buying music online

One concern that the costumer may find when buying the song online is the reliability, in terms of security and quality, as the file may be corrupted and have a virus which can damage your software, as costumers are always concern if the place where they are buying is “legit”, because they are trusting their information (in the case of buying trough the credit card); or even because of the poor quality of the audio file, your buy may be a waste of money.

//(d) //To what extent will people stop buying CD’s anymore and start buying all the music through B2C services.

As technology is all about making human´s life easier, selling music online will avoid people to be forced to go to the physical store, so it will save them time and they will be able to buy their music in any place with internet access (as long as they have a computer and a storage device). The process of making people stop buying CD´s won´t be immediate, as there are many factors to take in consideration such as the “digital divide”, security/reliability and preferences. The digital divide is one of the main factors to take in consideration, as this includes the people that doesn´t have a computer, or doesn’t know how to use it. Security and reliability is one of the points that people take at consideration, as it involves how “legit” is the business and if their money is secure when buying from that site. In conclusion, buying music online is easy and quick, but there are many factors to take in consideration before buying, such as the server, web page, connectivity, payment method, storage devices, file restrictions, etc…