Chicago (IL) – The British Music Rights published a new study on digital music usage trends that sheds new light on piracy issues. You would expect once again scary numbers of how many music files have been downloaded and how damaging the digital music age is for the music industry. However, this study actually found that music publishers and artists should be very upbeat on current trends and the fact that young adults are willing to put a “considerable value” on music, if the right service is offered. Music industry, are you listening?

By now, we are used to surveys and research estimating the potential impact of the legal and illegal digital music distribution models in place today. Every new research draws quite some attention, since there is always an expectation of news how much music is pirated. The claim of piracy creates tension and traditionally has sparked heated discussions between the music industry and consumers. This time it may be different, as the findings published of the British Music Rights do not reflect the typical result of this type of survey.

Most importantly, the British Music Rights, which hired the University Of Hertfordshire to conduct the survey, claims that young adults (ages 18 – 24, average age 22) are actually willing to pay for music if they're offered an attractive service model.

According to the survey, which ended as the largest UK academic survey of its kind, MP3 players are no ubiquitous, with almost 90% of respondents stating that they own some sort of digital music playback device, such as an iPod, mobile phones, car stereos or game consoles. The typical MP3 player holds 1770 music tracks. Statistically, 885 of those have not been paid for.   


P2P and friends are now the primary source of music

Widespread broadband internet access and the convenience of digital downloads have contributed to an enormous amount of music now being illegally copied from peer-to-peer networks. 63% of respondents are downloading their music from P2P file-sharing networks and 42% allow or have allowed other P2P users to download music from their computer. Another popular way of getting the latest music is by copying it from a friend's hard drive (58%) or some other way (95%). Researchers have concluded that "much of this behavior is viewed as altruistic."

More than half of the respondents either download their music from P2P networks or copy it from their friends, indicating that music copied from P2P networks further spreads among friends. However, not all hope is lost for the music industry as an astonishing 60% said they continue to buy CDs. The CD isn’t quite dead yet.

80% of respondents who admitted to illegally file-sharing said they are prepared to engage with a legal file-sharing service and place a “considerable monetary value on it.” The survey also found that young adults place different values on music formats. The least valuable version is streaming music and the CD the most valuable. Digital music files came in “somewhere in the middle.” 60% of the total music budget is being spent on live music.


Feargal Sharkey, chief executive officer of British Music Rights said that “the music industry should draw great optimism from this groundbreaking survey. First and foremost, it is quite clear that this young and tech-savvy demographic is as crazy about and engaged with music as any previous generation. Contrary to popular belief, they are also prepared to pay for it too. But only if offered the services they want. That message comes through loud and clear.”

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