“The National Record Buyers Study II” by Edison Research reports:
- 10.1% of 12-17-year-olds who actively download music from the Internet did not purchase a single CD or cassette in the last 12 months.
- 53% of 12-17-year-olds have burned someone else’s copy of a CD instead of buying their own copy.
- When it comes to download compensation, teens and young adults are more sympathetic to the plight of musicians than toward their record labels.
- 22% of Americans 12-44 years old agree with the statement “You no longer have to buy CDs, as you can download the music for free from the Internet.”
- The majority of music downloaders do have “some reservations” about artists’ and labels’ not being compensated but download music for free anyway.
- A majority of downloaders have gone on to buy an artist’s CD after downloading a track for free from the Internet.
And MP3Newswire.net’s Richard Menta was quick to write up “Research: File Traders Buy Records?,” analyzing Edison’s findings/conclusions line by line. The Slashdot discussion on these two articles can be found here.




