Most extensive surveying to date of the Canadian population on music purchasing habits concludes that there is a positive correlation between file-sharing and CD sales.
The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study For Industry Canada is a a newly commissioned study by Industry Canada, a ministry of the Canadian federal government, and includes some of the most extensive surveying to date on the music purchasing habits of the Canadian population .
Conducted by Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz of the Department of Management at the University of London in England, the study concludes that illegal file-sharing does not cause a decrease in music sales as the music industry has insisted all along. In fact, it does just the opposite, in that it apparently tends to actually INCREASE music purchasing.
“Our review of existing econometric studies suggests that P2P file-sharing tends to decrease music purchasing,” says the study. “However, we find the opposite, namely that P2P file-sharing tends to increase rather than decrease music purchasing.”
What makes the study so fascinating is that it’s been commissioned and released with the blessings of the Canadian Federal Government and not some self-serving poll commissioned by the music industry.
Among the key findings:
- For every 12 P2P downloaded songs, music purchases increase by 0.44 CDs. That is, downloading the equivalent of approximately one CD increases purchasing by about half of a CD.
- No relationship between P2P file-sharing and purchases of electronically-delivered music tracks (e.g., songs from iTunes).
- Roughly half of all P2P tracks were downloaded because individuals wanted to hear songs before buying them or because they wanted to avoid purchasing the whole bundle of songs on the associated CDs and roughly one quarter were downloaded because they were not available for purchase.
- Only the effect of illegally downloading music that is not available for purchase influenced music purchasing, with a 1% increase in such downloads being associated with nearly a 4% increase in CD purchases.
- People who also own an MP3 player appear to be less likely to purchase CD albums.
The study also found that other forms of entertainment such as movies, concert tickets, and video games tend to increase with music purchases. It has been argued in the literature that the increase in the number of entertainment choices has led to a decline in music purchasing, but the study concludes otherwise. It found that a reported interest in music is very strongly associated with music purchases.
Moreover, this analysis of the Canadian P2P file-sharing subpopulation suggests that there is a strong positive relationship between file-sharing and CD purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing. Furthermore, it finds indirect evidence of the ‘market creation’ effect of P2P file-sharing when music is otherwise unavailable.
The study is somewhat difficult to sort through, but the conclusions are unmistakable: file-sharing actually benefits music sales. It basically confirms what I’ve said all along and that’s that BitTorrent tracker sites like OiNK actually made better music fans of us all and allowed us to discover new music that we wouldn’t have found otherwise. You can read the study for yourself here.
News Tip? Comment? Suggestion? jared@zeropaid.com
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One among numerous studies done on the behalf of the Canadian government. Do our politicians pay attention to the studies they commission apparently nott. They are still looking at passing tougher laws and restricting file sharing why? because the politicians are lobbied by the RIAA and MPAA and all those other cronies. Just look up Bev Oda she’s probably the worst for such special interests.
It’s a sad state indeed where our own government does not even believe in people who have scholastic knowledge and have researched the topic without bias on the matter rather following along the RIAA PR train like a dog on a very short leash.
Although it’s quite funny if you look at it from an angle that most Canadians don’t believe what many media sources tell them about what games to buy or what movies to watch or music they listen to they’d rather check it out for themselves then pay the money to watch/listen to it in the proper facilities than just shotgun and hope they get a good one.
I never believe this crap. Or when kids on forums insist that they buy music they downloaded. Why on earth would you buy music that you already have? Are you really that concerned with the miniscule quality difference between MP3s and CDs?
I dont buy (or download) much music so I can’t comment specifically on that. But I do download quite a few games. I used to buy about 6-10 games a year or so. But in the past five years I bought exactly two — Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (Orange Box). And thats only because you (basically) need to have a legal copy to play online.
I dont buy games anymore because you can get them for free on the internet. Simple as that. Its not unlike my reason why I dont buy pornography anymore.
Jose people still buy music for 3 reasons either they want to support the band they are audiophiles or they just want the nostalgia of having the nicely pressed disc in its nicely presented case. Other then that your right people have no reason to buy the music but there are still reasons. There allot more community support for artists then there are for game designers I think its because games seem more corporate where music can still for the most part be pure.
Actually if I like a game I actually go out and buy it after an initial test run Josef…