Thank you Mr. Walktalker!
Quote:
Originally posted by walktalker
Long-Time File-Swappers Buy More Music, Not Less 
Contrary to charges that Internet song-swapping is killing the music industry, new Jupiter Media Metrix research contends that experienced online song-swappers are more likely to buy new albums than average music fans, not less. The same research also concludes that other popular computer technologies including broadband Internet access and writable CD drives are measurably sapping music industries revenues. But even with these revenue-draining technologies, the report says, the message is not so simple.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176114.html
|
An interesting study, here is one detail worth attention:
Quote:
|
Among all fans of online music, he writes, 29 percent said their music spending habits had changed. Of those, 19 percent reported more spending and 10 percent reported less. But P2P file-swappers were 41 percent more likely than average online music fans to have increased music spending levels in 2001, according to the research.
|
After being involved in p2p for a couple of years I have no trouble believing this. P2p has boosted the
interest in music big way, for me personally and for virtually all of my online friends with whom I have been in contact since the early Naspter days. Some of them are quite wealthy and getting it all for 'free' is really not the point for them. Some of them buy a number of new albums every week just for the pleasure of sharing good new music with their friends. In general the focus is not on money at all, it is on music itself, on the artists and on various aspects of sharing.
And perhaps this is the explanation why p2p activists remain a group where there is still some growth in music sales. Pretty much every consumer on the planet has already realized that CDs are grossly overpriced and that the money goes to the middleman instead of the artist. This makes buying CDs less and less attractive for private consumption. Active filesharers, however, have the additional incentive of sharing the album with their online friends which still justifies the otherwise unacceptable price for them. The wine may be expensive but if a single bottle is enough to cater for a whole party you may still be willing to buy it.
Here are the final conclusions of Jupiter analyst Aram Sinnreich:
Quote:
Sinnreich says the results show only statistical correlations, not cause-and-effect relationships. Nonetheless, the analyst wrote, "It is safe to say that active usage of online music content is one of the best predictors of increased consumer purchasing."
There should be a message in that mantra, says Sinnreich, for a music industry that has focused many of its efforts since 1999 on destroying the peer-to-peer file-sharing phenomenon that first surfaced with the rise of Napster.
|
- tg
