Music sharing is good for album purchases after all (5)
Industry Canada has published a study where it shows that canadians sharing and getting music on p2p networks will finally buy more music. Some of the key quotes:
Industry Canada undertook a music file sharing study during 2006-07 to measure the extent to which music downloads over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, for which the sound recording industry receives no remuneration, affect music purchasing activity in Canada.
Among Canadians who engage in P2P file-sharing, our results suggest that for every 12 P2P downloaded songs, music purchases increase by 0.44 CDs.
With respect to the other effects, roughly half of all P2P tracks were downloaded because individuals wanted to hear songs before buying them or because they wanted to avoid purchasing the whole bundle of songs on the associated CDs and roughly one quarter were downloaded because they were not available for purchase.
This comes just one week after the ADISQ came out, whining about the Internet, and how CDs sales were plummeting. This study shows that instead of fighting the Internet, they should work with it. The CD is a dead format, and destinations like iTunes have shown the way how music should be sold on the Internet.
I’m always skeptical of studies like this, because it’s very difficult to determine whether a particular person would buy more CDs if P2P downloading wasn’t available.
There’s also the problem of assuming that any results shown for illegal file-sharing would still hold if copyright law were thrown into the wind and such copying were made legal.
Of course, the study looks all professional-like, so I can’t criticize it.
But:
“However, Liebowitz (2004) illustrated that prices for CD albums have been almost constant over a 30-year period (1973-2002) suggesting that changes in record sales would seem to be, of statistical necessity, due to other factors.”
Odd, I’d think more people would be buying CDs now than were in 1973.
But again, I can’t criticize the big professional-looking study.
[...] Via Montreal Tech Watch. [...]
so if that’s the case, why do the people from music industry is complaining about their sales? I think ,before thinking how to gain a big profit, think about what the music lovers want. As this study shows, there’s actually a good benefit that we can get from file sharing..huh!
I’m proud to say that this easily the best article I’ve ready today! :D How can I subscribe?
Interesting stuff, I think you brought your points forward quite well. How would you like to guest write (for money) on a similar blog?
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