25% drop in ‘illegal downloading’: NPD
p2pnet view P2P:- Are people cutting back on “sharing music illegally” on P2P sites?
NPD ‘analyst’ Russ Crupnick reckons they are.
However, it’s almost as if when he makes a statement, we should believe the exact opposite and right now, according to CNet News, Crupnick says NPD “saw a 25 percent decline in illegal downloading in the United States via P2P sites during 2009″.
NPD once claimed iTunes was beating LimeWire.
“Apple iTunes Music Store more popular than most peer-to-peer file sharing services,” trumpeted MacDailyNews.
Behind the statement was NPD, “a market research firm which suddenly appeared out of nowhere in late 2003 and which the mainstream media immediately began quoting as an authority on music and file sharing,” said p2pnet.
iTunes, “tied with LimeWire as the second-most-popular digital music service in March, 2005,” said MacDailyNews, going on, “Both iTunes and LimeWire were used by 1.7 million households.”
When p2pnet first came across NPD, adidas International, International Flavors & Fragrance and Wrigley typified its client base, but it was nonetheless churning out ’studies’ and ‘reports’ bolstering entertainment cartel claims and when p2pnet asked Greg Bildson, who was at the time LimeWire COO, “I wonder at the source for their numbers,” he said.
“Our numbers seem rather small here. I mean we get 6,000,000 or more downloads a month so we’ve got to assume that we’re in more than 1.7 million households. I don’t think iTunes is getting six million downloads a month on the software itself.”
Nonetheless, “One of the music industry’s questions has been when will paid download stores compete head-to-head with free P2P download services,” MacDailyNews had Russ Crupnick saying, going on, “That question has now been answered.”
And this was back in 2005.
More recently, he was claiming nine out of 10 dollars spent on computers costing $1,000 or more went to Apple.
And the lamescream press corpse was repeating this ridiculous statement without question and as fact.
So how come people are “cutting back” on sharing?
It looks as though Crapnick believes the labels have stopped producing ‘product’.
“You have a lot of people who have built up their collections,” Crupnick said. “They are filled up with both paid music and unpaid and it is something like ‘I found all the important stuff I wanted, all the Japanese stuff or concert stuff. I’m happy with the collections I’ve accumulated.’ This cuts into need.”
CNet goes on:
“How about this: NPD also reported the music industry saw 24 million fewer legal music buyers in 2009. That number included 1 million fewer buyers of music downloads. So, this means that fewer people are interested in acquiring music through both legal and illegal means.
“Then what are they doing?”
No need to stay tuned.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
CNet News – P2P music use down; users may be stuffed, March 1, 2010
MacDailyNews -Apple iTunes Music Store more popular than most peer-to-peer file sharing services, June 7, 2005
p2pnet – ‘iTunes is beating LimeWire’, June 7, 2005
went to Apple – NPD ‘Apple 91%’ claim, July 23, 2009
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March 2nd, 2010 at 10:54 am
What else is new? The music and movie industries are chock ful of shysters, crap merchants, bullshit artists, liars, thieves, pimps and scammers.
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:56 am
Often these sorts of survey’s also only look at traditional P2P like Gnutella, Kazaa, eDonkey and that sort of thing, because they are easy to track. They tend to ignore bittorrent, usenet, IRC, Rapidshare, etc because it’s much harder to get real numbers, so they just pretend it doesn’t exist.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
“You have a lot of people who have built up their collections,” Crupnick said. “They are filled up with both paid music and unpaid and it is something like ‘I found all the important stuff I wanted, all the Japanese stuff or concert stuff.”
This part is true, for me………..
“I’m happy with the collections I’ve accumulated.’ This cuts into need.”
This part, not so much, I am happy with what I have downloaded. But now I’m looking at UNKNOWN artists!
So downloading has decreased by 25%…………….flip that over to INCREASED and you might be right
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:27 pm
The problem with this type of lie is that they will have to explain the investors what happen to the 25% customers and why they are not buying music and movie from them.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:11 pm
For me part of this is true. I not longer use the Gnutella and like to share. So I am no longer counted as a user of that particular type of sharing.
Nor do I any longer download music nor movies. I’ve had a long time to collect whatever it is I like. New artists have zero appeal to me. So I’m no longer a music customer.
That doesn’t mean I don’t download, it just means my tastes have changed in what I am interested in. The bitchin’ about copyright and crap is a total turn off. It’s helped encourage me to avoid it like a plague. In the process of of suing their own customers and crowing about it to any and all, they’ve lost whatever interest I might have had in it. I’ll simply avoid them, both in download and in purchase. The results is a zero customer who can go elsewhere for entertainment, other than the regular established means that most of the public accepts. I no longer care for tv, music, nor movies.
Now let them go count that in their surveys.
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Bringing them down, together with the government who is their ally in screwing us over, is way more fun than downloading corporate “formulaic” “entertainment” “product”.
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
“I no longer care for tv, music, nor movies.
Now let them go count that in their surveys.”
Well said, sir! $1 million for you!
There are only a few things that I consider to be entertaining and even those are disappearing and declining in value. Let’s boycott until our voices are heard!
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Lets be honest, who says no, I’d rather pay for something than have it for free? The majority of people will always take the “free meal” over the one that comes from their own pocket. That being said this is an interesting article since you have a sudden authority (NPD) telling anyone that will listen that their raw data shows that there is a 25% drop in illegal downloading. On the other hand does it show that itunes’ revenues or raw numbers are up 25%?
Are people suddenly walking away from getting their music for free? Are people suddenly wanting to pay for everything they listen and is itunes’ business expanding rapidly? Have 25% of the general public decided to feed the artists out there? I say no, this article is an example of how an agency can twist numbers into making their claim “true.”
The NPD group is a market research company. Their work involves tracking point-of-sale information, including sales volume, market share, and pricing. This information helps retailers understand their competition, grow their product categories, discuss opportunities with vendors, and enhance their merchandising and promotion activities. That may be fine when McDonalds is competing against Burger King, but it doesn’t hold up in this particular argument. My main argument is how can NPD accurately track illegal downloads on p2p sites or from people who share their music with friends via emailed mp3’s and or burned cd’s, etc. There is so much “grey” area when it comes to sharing music that there is no way to accurately show a dead on 100% number. Much like the census this year it is more so a rough estimate based on the crude number compiled in a particular way that we have deemed as “accurate.”
While I don’t support illegal downloads and feel as though artists deserve to be paid for their intellectual property, I believe that most people want their music for free and will get it no matter what. From listening for free on youtube, myspace, etc or sharing it with friends, people’s ever growing illegal libraries will always be supported economically by our constantly advancing technology and how we can avoid paying.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Statistics can portray any meaning someone wants them too.
There was a write up in the local paper trying to convince people that the economy is getting better
because foreclosures have been slowing down. I don’t think that any paper will publish the notion
that foreclosures might be down because once a person loses their home, they can’t lose it twice
Of course foreclosures will be down after that. That’s not an indication of improving economy, just a
side effect of more struggling people finding themselves homeless. Spin spin spin.
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:28 pm
“How about this: NPD also reported the music industry saw 24 million fewer legal music buyers in 2009. That number included 1 million fewer buyers of music downloads. So, this means that fewer people are interested in acquiring music through both legal and illegal means.
“Then what are they doing?”
1) I’m sure they mean from the Big 4
2) Maybe that backlash for the whole sue em campaign is startting to grow.
I think the reason fro backing off on the whole sue em all campaign was two fold. Someone finally figured out it was really bad PR no matter what the lawyers told them, and their campaign of bribery, er sorry lobbying, was starting to show returns (ACTRA anyone).
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Apparantly politicians cost less than lawsuits
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Perhaps there is 25% less decent stuffeven worth bothering to steal ?
Or like me,
Their are 25% more people that are boycotting these evil bastards and there wares.
I have not bought or even downloaded a single song in over a year and,
I used to rent 20 DVDs a week and pay for foxtell, well not any more i have not rented a DVD in almost a year have not gone to the movies and have got rid of foxtell.
Treat me like a Muppet you scum and expect me to give you my money HA ! Who’s the Muppet now ?
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
“1) I’m sure they mean from the Big 4″
The problem is that these morons attracted substantial collateral damages in despite of the effort of some anti-entertainment-cartel activists to protect the indy scene from the boycott.
I know many people who put everything in the same basket and have simply stopped buying anything music and movies related and in despite of sites such as the RIAA Radar.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I know people who are no consciously boycotting but got all the music they like for now and are too disgusted by the entertainment industry greed to look for new stuffs.
These guys became too obvious in taking their former customers for a ride.