‘Illegal’ downloads hit high note
p2pnet news | music:- The Big 4 corporate music cartel is trying to get a stranglehold on customers by suing them into consumer compliancy. Notwithstanding, “More and more of us are getting our music free from peer-to-peer sites on the internet,” says a new survey.
Reading this and other reports of the study, from Entertainment Media Research, one could be forgiven for thinking a viable corporate download music market exists.
But the exact opposite is true. By far the vast bulk of music moves computer to computer on the P2P networks and independent music and download sites.
Apple’s iTunes is, to all intents and purposes, the only major business site.
It has unsubstantiated sales claims of two billion since 2003 but even if the number is accurate, it’s minor indeed compared to what’s happening in the real world of music where an absolute minimum of one billion songs are shared online every month.
The survey questioned 1,700 13-60 year-olds from across the UK, says The Telegraph, summing the situation up like this:
“Illegal music downloads have reached an all time high just as the growth of online social networking has shifted the epicentre of the music industry away from the major record labels …”
And, “the popularity of social networking websites such as MySpace and BeBo is helping to ‘democratise’ the music industry as more young people discover new music online instead of via the radio or music television,” says the story.
The fact of the matter is: young people have known all about the pleasures of online music since day one. What’s really happening is the corporate music industry and associated businesses completely missed the boat, completely failing to recognize P2P as the distribution vehicle of the twenty first digital century.
Now they’re paddling crazily, trying to catch up before the boat gets even further out of the harbour.
According to EMR, some 43% of us, “now download tracks illegally, while only 33 per cent are worried about being prosecuted,” says Tech.co.uk.
p2pnet also ran an online survey which, given that most of the respondents are dedicated online music lovers, might be considered to be even more relevant.
More than 1,100 readers from around the world responded.
“Have the RIAA sue ‘em all lawsuits persuaded you to stop sharing?” - p2pnet asked.
No! - shouted 94.1% (1,013) of them.
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Also See:
one billion songs - 1 billion songs a DAY shared online, May 8, 2007
The Telegraph - Illegal music downloads hit record high, July 30, 2007
Tech.co.uk - Illegal downloads hit new high, July 30, 2007
p2pnet - p2pnet RIAA poll: final results, April 23, 2007
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