stating the obvious to the ironically deaf music industry:

[miriam_e]

This little gem can be found at http://www.netimperative.com/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=all&docid=BEP1_News_0000054857&eventtype=newsletterlink

Research shows internet boosts album sales

London, July 9 2003, (netimperative)

by Susie Harwood

Illegal downloading of music over the internet may actually encourage music fans to buy more albums on CD, according to a new report from market research firm Music Programming Ltd (MPL).

The survey, carried out among 500 British fans aged 13-45 with internet access, opposes the widely adopted view by the music industry that file swapping networks such as Kaaza that encourage illegal music downloading, are responsible for the slump in CD album sales, which have fallen 5% over the last year.

While 91% of survey respondents admitted to downloading music tracks over the internet, 87% said that they then went on to buy the full album on CD.

The survey also said 41% of its respondents declared themselves as "heavy downloaders" - accessing more than 100 tracks - but that 34% of them still felt they bought more albums than they did a year ago.

Asked why they download music, the respondents were most likely to say it was "to check out music I've heard about but not listened to yet" (75%) and "to help me decide whether to buy the CD" (66%).

However, the survey does suggest the demise of the single, with just 13% of respondents saying that they would buy a single after downloading that particular song. CD singles sales are already 42% down year-on-year.

MPL believes the survey results reveal that people use the internet as a way of finding out about new music but are still interested in maintaining a CD collection, and that the industry should use it as a way of promoting new artists.

www.musicprogramming.com

Comments

[ledestin.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I wouldn't buy a single. There's no point. Six dollars for one song? Why? But at least us downloaders are finally proving our point.

...and the second one:

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Same here. I don't think I'll ever buy a single.

Yep, more than once I've downloaded music and become so enamored with it that I've gone out and bought it on CD. Even then I felt bad about all the money that goes to the music industry and the small proportion that goes to the actual artists. If I had another way to buy the music by sending money directly to the artists I would. I hate that I put money into the pockets of the assholes who are trying to make me out to be a criminal.

[guyminuslife.livejournal.com]

Really, I'm surprised that record companies aren't more upset with radio stations! Imagine: these stations play copywrited music 24 hours a day! Anyone with a radio within a hundred miles of the studio can get all this music for free! How can the record companies and musicians possibly make a profit if all their music is being played free of charge on the airwaves? Nobody is going to go out and buy music that they can hear without paying for it! Who do these radio people think they are, anyway?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Yes.

Of course the execs' rationale is that the radio stations pay a royalty each time a song is played. In practice radio stations are often bribed to play new music, so the music executives don't even follow their own rationalisation.

But you are right. Following the music industry's logic people could simply listen to the radio and never ever buy a CD. Everybody knows this is not what happens. The situation with downloading mp3s is similar, but they have the politicians and even the musicians themselves convinced that it is not in their interests.

The real difference is that the executives don't have control over a free distribution service and this scares the willies out of them. Also I am sure that the few execs who do realise that artists stand to make money out of free advertising (and even distribution) see themselves as becoming almost irrelevant and cynically oppose it because of that. Who would pay for advertising if it is free? But of course this is wrong again. Some paid advertising will always be useful, though they'll probably have to release some of their death-grip upon the industry.

[loco-indahouse.livejournal.com]

Insane! I dont buy CD's much....if I hear a song I like I download it, but if I hear another few good songs by the same artist then I'll probably get the CD.