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Illegal file sharing is down, streaming is up

Posted by Anonymous Saturday, November 21, 2009

by Jodie Andrefski on Jul 13, 2009 at 12:18 PM

live_band
Illegal file sharing is down, and streaming is up, at least when it comes to teenagers.  According to new research, teens are changing their ways when it comes to piracy.  There has been a dramatic drop in the number of youth aged 14 to 18 who are illegally sharing music.  At the same time there has been a hike in the number who now regularly stream their music online with sites like Spotify or YouTube.
In December of 2007, 42% of 14 to 18 years olds admitted they shared files at least once a month.  That number has dropped to 26% as of January 2009.  65% of those teens regularly stream music and 31% are listening on their computer daily.
The industry might not be selling more music this way, but they are learning something about what the listeners like.  Perhaps they will market other items accordingly. 
Steve Purdham, CEO and founder of We7, a music streaming service and download store, said, “They may not buy an album, though they have that opportunity, but you can sell them tour tickets and a T-shirt of their favourite band.”
Obviously, even these figures don’t in any way suggest that piracy is done and over with, but many in the music industry are hoping it is a step in that direction.  It is believed by some that these numbers reflect the idea that the notion of piracy growing and growing is more myth than fact. 
According to CEO of Music Ally (who carried out the survey along with the media and tech research company, The Leading Question) Paul Brindley, “These figures challenge the idea that file sharing will just continue to grow. While we don’t think for a second that it shows the war against piracy is won, it does at least suggest that there is encouraging news for the music industry.”
Furthering this belief is that legitimate digital sales also saw an upward swing of 41.5% in 2008, while physical single sales dropped 43.5%.  The research also revealed that there were even more people actually buying single track downloads (19%) than file sharing singles (17%). 
While Francis Keeling, VP, Digital at Universal Music Group, welcomes this news, he also says streaming has to be combined with new services.  He referenced the new deal going on with Virgin Media where broadband users get unlimited downloads for a monthly fee.
CEO of BPI, Geoff Taylor thought the news was great.  He said the numbers were “absolutely encouraging,” and added, “The industry has worked hard to license new services, they are great music discovery tools and a new way for artists to get paid and drive new sales.”
What do you think?  Will piracy ever end in lieu of other means or is it a ship that we will forever see the black sails on the horizon?
Read: [guardian]

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