Illegal file-sharing down by a third meaning efforts to combat piracy may make little difference for the music industry as it tries to halt declining revenues.
The Leading Question, a consumer research company dedicated to providing insight into the world of digital music, has released the results of a survey it conducted with over 1000 music fans aged 14-64 that provides some interesting insight into the state of illegal file-sharing in the UK.
It found that the overall percentage of music fans file-sharing regularly (i.e. every month) has gone down since the last national survey. In December 2007 22% regularly file-shared tracks, but in January 2009 this was down to 17%, a comparative drop of nearly a quarter.
“File-sharing is a moving target, so industry and Government policies need to recognize this,” says Paul Brindley, CEO of Music Ally, which assisted Leading Question in the survey. “It’s already being somewhat displaced by other means of accessing music for free. Some are licensed, many are not licensed and some
involve a bit of both. Kids find services like YouTube much more convenient for checking out new music than file-sharing. But even YouTube can become a source of piracy with some kids ripping YouTube videos and turning them into free MP3 downloads.”
This echoes comments made by Techdirt’s Michael Masnick this past February in which he argued that the music industry needs to learn to “compete with free.”
Compete with Free (CwF) + Return to Business (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)
The biggest drop in those regularly file-sharing occurred amongst 14-18yos.
Between December ‘07 and January ‘09 the percentage of 14-18yos who were file-sharing at least once a month dropped from 42% to just 26%.
This is despite the fact that the percentage of music fans who have ever file-shared has, unsurprisingly, increased, rising from 28% in December ‘07 to 31% in January ‘09. The move to streaming music is clear with the research showing some 65% of teens are streaming music at least once a month. More fans are also regularly sharing burned CDs and bluetoothing tracks to each other than file-sharing tracks.
There are now more UK music fans regularly buying digital singles (19%) than illegally downloading them (17%) every month, though with albums the numbers are inverted, with illegal downloads (13%) outpacing legal purchase (10%).
The survey also shows the ratio of total pirated to purchased tracks has halved since between December ‘07 and January ‘09 from 4:1 to 2:1.
What the survey really means is that by the time some of the anti-piracy measures proposed in the recently released Digital Britain report actually take effect, which now won’t happen until 2010 at the earliest, the nature of the piracy threat is likely to have changed dramatically, and the got’s stated goal of reducing piracy by some 70% will probably have little effect in restoring the revenues the music industry claims have been lost to P2P.
“Ultimately we believe that the best way to beat piracy is to create great new licensed services that are easier and more fun to use, whether that’s an unlimited streaming service like Spotify or a service like the one recently announced by Virgin which aims to offer unlimited MP3 downloads as well as unlimited
streams,” added Tim Walker, CEO of The Leading Question.
Either way the news is sure to bolster critics of the Digital Britain report who argue it caters to “industry insiders” and not the public at large.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
Related Posts
- SURVEY: Teens Buying and Illegally Downloading Less Music
- UK SURVEY: 54% of File-Sharers Buy Music on iTunes
- Two Out of Three American Teens Oppose Fines for Music File Sharers, Says Harris Interactive Youth Survey
- Illegal downloaders are also biggest spenders: research
- Young ‘prefer illegal song swaps’
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Dont let surveys and statistics blow your mind.
I myself worked for a company to twist the statistics legally.
Look around in your friendship and see whats happening. Dont let your guard down and dont let them take your right for accessing culture and class-free inspiration.
To do that, of course, you have to stick to free file-sharing and avoid payment options.
Think of the genome sequences and flowers which some companies have under patent.
this survey is bullshit !
I can actually believe the survey. Note that this doesn’t mean teens like paying for their music… it just means they like to stream music (because they don’t have to wait for things to download). I’m sure these same teens download the music they eventually end up liking in a higher quality format.
I totally believe the survey. I think a lot of people have downloaded all that they are going to. The last 10 years has seen a flood of pent up demand, but sometime in 2007 I would guess, that demand has been somewhat satiated.
Also, there really isn’t any more good music being made anymore these days. I don’t think I have downloaded a recently made song in years. It’s mostly soundtracks, or old school 90’s or 80’s stuff. I got all that stuff a long time ago. I am frankly amazed the RIAA still exists. They are basically the GM and Chrysler of the music industry. They are just looking at their industry as a way to make money, and get rich. They don’t care about making quality music anymore.
If true, this is good for legal services such as BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Spotify, Last.fm etc.
I definitely think that streaming fulfils the “instant gratification” needs of many consumers. So in the same way downloading a movie was more instant than going into town, and into a store, streaming takes this to the next level. Though I do also believe their will always be hardcore collectors of content.
InfamousOne,
You must be living under a rock. No new music being made anymore? Yeah, I suppose if your thing is pop and top 40 then you’re all about wailing about Michael Jackson’s death while trying to moonwalk to ‘beat it’ and reliving the glory days of the big hair metal 80’s and the Grunge infested 90’s.
If you get your cues from MTV, then maybe yeah, what is ‘music’ as you know it is grinding to a halt and the golden day are over. Of course part of the problem what you think of as ‘music’ is a very sheltered and sanitized mainstream understanding of it.
Meanwhile, other genres of new and wicked beats are being produced in renaissance being invented by new artists every day; ingeniously sampled and flawlessly mixed into sets that are in themselves masterpieces of art. Unreal new genres are discovered over night, and music never stops evolving. Dubstep, breakstep, trip hop garage, new school D&B, are just a couple genres of the cusp of the bleeding edge of music today. If you have preconceived prejudices against the new and yearn instead for the days of big hair, spandex, and cheesy top 40 galore, then I’m sorry that you’ve chosen to turn your back on some of the best music being made, which is today … and remain mired in the past.
You appear to have lost your way.
“Dubstep, breakstep, trip hop garage, new school D&B”
All that shit is so retro… just minor changes from shit from 20 years ago, which WAS new sounding. That whole thing is over, backwards looking… Just because it’s new to you doesn’t mean it’s new.
Uh, compare trance to 20 years ago. Oh wait, you can’t because it started being developed in the 90’s (Re: Wikipedia).
Try comparing some of the big tunes of electronica to the oldskool roots. There’s a huge difference. I know tonnes of people that complain that their style of electronica has died because it has changed so much. You know why? All the genre bending that has taken place for years. Elements of DnB being incorporated into trance, elements of electro being incorporated into House. Rock elements being incorporated into Psy. Trust me. Saying that electronica today is almost identical to 20 years ago is almost completely untrue.
Well, many teens are too stupid to successfully complete all the steps required to get a bt client up set up and downloading at a decent speed.
Many of them are behind all sorts of firewalls, “protective” software installed on their machines etc.