Multi-agent simulation applied to on-line music distribution market

Over the past few years it has become clear that the Internet will play an ever greater role in the distribution of digital contents. Our main aim is to provide businesses in the digital contents sector with a tool, which enables them to take informed business strategy decisions and become more competitive by adapting their traditional business models to the new, demanding reality. To achieve this objective, we have implemented a first version of a music market model called SimWebA that is based on multiagent simulation technology. In our simulations, agents represent market stakeholders that act autonomously according to their interests and interact with other agents inside the market environment. This allows end users to investigate the implications of a variety of decisions and strategies by running simulations starting from different initial conditions.