Consumers know it’s illegal but are not convinced that illicit downloading is damaging.
Tiscali Music Research takes an in-depth look at attitudes to music and illegal downloading
Tiscali today releases the results of an online study into UK consumer’s attitudes to music and illegal music downloading.
The anonymous study, hosted on the tiscali.co.uk music channel through December and January and with support from other media sites including Drowned in Sound, asked the audience to share their real attitudes to illegal downloading as well as their relationship with music both recorded and live.
It is clear from the research that more consumers are familiar with P2P than expected and they generally understand that illegal downloading is wrong – just not that wrong. And they haven’t been convinced that it is actually damaging. They believe they are already contributing to the music industry by spending money regularly anyway, but they do have a limit to what they will buy. The more music savvy the consumer, the more likely they are to be participating in illegal downloading but also they are more likely to be spending more both on recorded music AND live gigs, so this poses a major conundrum for the music business.
P2P sites are used by 46% of respondents but 53% say they have never knowingly downloaded music illegally.
46% of respondents on the tiscali.co.uk survey said they had used one or more of the sites most associated with illegal downloading (BitTorrent, Limewire, Gnutella, emule, Ares or DirectConnect) with Limewire (34%) and BitTorrent (25%) by far the most popular. However 53% have never knowingly downloaded illegally. This percentage using P2P sites increases slightly to 54% for those in the survey using iTunes and significantly to 78% for the Drowned in Sound (DiS) audience. Only 7% of DiS audience have ‘never knowingly downloaded music illegally’ (40% for iTunes users).
The public know it’s wrong but illegal downloading is not viewed as ‘serious enough’.
At least three out of four people know what is legal and illegal in relation to their music use, but at least half don’t think the music industry does enough to persuade them that illegal downloading is damaging (66% Tiscali, 63% iTunes and 47% DiS). This means there needs to be a major change in attitude through education to ensure public peer pressure can achieve the sort of shift in behaviour equivalent to that of always wearing a seatbelt or making smoking in the workplace unacceptable.
BUT Britain generally still spends money on music.
83% of the survey respondents said that they still pay for music in some form, whether on a CD or via download. In fact 78% said that they still spend money on CDs rising to 85% for DiS replies. Most surprisingly 76% of iTunes users are still buying CDs.
Even the illegal downloading communities are still spending money on CDs – 51% for tiscali.co.uk, 54% for iTunes and 69% for DiS.
Up to 69% are spending over £10 a month
34% of respondents spend at least £10 a month, 44% for iTunes subset and 69% for DiS users. Only 17% of respondents say they spend nothing a month, 9% for iTunes and 6% for DiS. In addition, when it comes to gigs, 13% of tiscali.co.uk respondents go to at least one gig a month and this rises to 25% in the illegal download subset. For those using iTunes this represents 29% rising to 45% and 77% of DiS readers consistently go to at least one gig a week, whether they download illegally or not.
Sean Adams, founder and editor of DrownedinSound.com says: “Our readers are some of the most rabid and complex music consumers in the world. Their slightly nerdy tendencies have meant they embraced downloading at its very embryonic stage. I was surprised that so many of our readers knew what the BPI is because I know people that have worked in the music industry for a decade who have never heard of it. Recorded music is only part of their lives, they go to a hell of a lot of gigs and the study shows they go to at least 12 gigs a year, which is obviously a major contribution to the UK music industry.
“However, it would seem from this study that little has changed their attitudes to ‘illegal P2P’. Instead, the music industry should do much more to engage with outlets and fans by offering freemium products and help the likes of Spotify develop compelling alternatives to P2P in order to upsell legal digital products”
Illegal downloaders are ‘topping up’ or trying before they buy
Of those who have admitted to illegal downloading in the past, many are doing it to supplement the music they buy – 60% of Tiscali respondents and 62% of DiS said they only downloaded free because of a limited budget or to supplement their spend on their favourite music/artists. Approximately one in ten say they do it because they like to ‘try before they buy’. A similar one in ten say they rarely buy music now they can get it for free.
Only 53% of iTunes users spend money on iTunes
Despite iTunes being the most high profile and successful legal paid for download model, only 53% of its users actually said they spend money on iTunes, with 44% using it to manage their CD collection.
In comparison with the 17% from the tiscali.co.uk sample, a higher 33% of iTunes illegal downloaders say they spend no money and only get their music free.
Neal McCleave, Managing Director of Media Services at Tiscali says: “The research shows that music fans have a far from simple relationship with music and many see illegal downloading as either a way to explore new music they would never buy or as a way to try before they buy. There is clearly a distinct trend for people ‘topping up’ their paid music collection through free downloads. Only a hard core of about 15% said that they wouldn’t stop and they downloaded illegally because they didn’t want to pay.
“This doesn’t have to be all negative news for the music industry: in fact, if people are not able to access tracks for free, it may well prevent them from discovering new music in the future.”
Key deterrents to illegal downloading are lack of knowledge and the lure of owning the CD
Punitive measures rate low for deterrent as only 6% fear a fine, 2% fear that their ISP will monitor them and only 3% are worried that their ISP will cut them off. The two main deterrents to download illegally today are firstly a lack of knowledge, with 31% saying they do not know which sites are legal and which are not and this prevents them from trying these services. Secondly, 25% of people said that they are primarily deterred from downloading illegally by a desire to own the extras that come with a CD, including sleeve notes, artwork and lyrics.
McCleave concludes: “Accessible and affordable services may go a long way to eradicating illegal downloading. After all many users of illegal P2P admit the quality is shocking. But it is clear that the music industry particularly has to be more creative and even radical in their thinking. The dam is already broken and they could instead look at ways of turning this ‘torrent’ in their favour.”
the situation in reality is no different from music copying in the 60’s and 70’s from vinyl to tapes etc. the only difference today is that the music industry has so many more mediums to sell music and doesnt really use it extensively. corny as it sounds, excuse the pun, we still need more uk television music programmes. the BBC’s biggest blunder was cancelling top of the pops. however, back to illegal copies. there is more than enough technology out there to stop copying especially with sound ’screens’ and website blockers to stop you recording without paying. the world web will never get policed correctly, hence how to make ur own bomb websites etc so its hardly suprising to hear the music industry cant protect music piracy copying. photography is the same today. how could you possibly protect your unique images as a photographer today without a court case. blah, blah. ….anyway Britain produces the worlds best music without doubt and any honest system to control loss revenue through copy should have been implemented by now. they’ve had at least four decades eh?
Comment by david, milton keynes — February 26, 2009 @ 9:37 am
I am sympathetic to the artists legitimate interests in this respect, and have never knowingly downloaded illegal tracks. The producers of the finished product also have rights and as long as they continue to supply good products at reasonable cost I will maintain this position.
I do transfer recordings I own to different media forms for my own use, which to me is quite reasonable and as this is almost exclusively classical music not many others would be keen to listen anyway.
In addition classical music tends to have a longer shelf life hence a longer selling period than most popular music items, meaning these artists have time to recoup their costs and profits. unlike the more transient popular offerrings.
Comment by Graham Banfield — February 26, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
Pressure from illegal downloads has encouraged record companies to stop ripping off consumers with the price of CD’s. They are nearly half the price they were 8 years ago b4 downloading and added extras (bonus material, cd, dvd, online extras) make buying physical cd’s more attractive. Free downloads has also been a way into the mainstream music markets that would never have been available before to young artists. I will do some downloading but I still buy CD’s I like (many after hearing them first on a download) and go to a hell of a lot of gigs so I am far from a freeloader. The challenge is to make the consumer resist the free option by offering good product.
Comment by topcat, edinburgh — February 26, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
the only way to stop it is for people like your selves to block it on the net.in my day no one complained about making our own tapes from the program top twenty.unless of course you are selling them which is definetly wrong.
Comment by brenda — February 27, 2009 @ 12:13 pm
Does the music industry want to stab them self in the foot, stopping illegal downloading will lower the sales, as the survey shows the majority of people downloading buy more music or visit gigs then people who do not download illegaly. Also How can new artists expect to sell records as I certinaly wouldnt spend £10+ on a cd if i didnt know what they sounded like. Especially as it only costs about 50p to churn out a cd.
Comment by Tom — March 2, 2009 @ 8:16 pm
I have downloaded a few obscure, elderly music tracks illegally in the past. The space saving plan is to transfer all my favourite tracks from my vast CD collection into the mp3 format soon. It seemed logical to purchase future tracks via I-tunes so I installed the software on my PC. For me, the major stumbling block is the petty restrictions on what/where you can copy the music to once you have paid for the download… so I am now MORE likely to source a track via copying a friends CD or illegal download.
Comment by Alan Thompson — March 3, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Downloading is the way forward! CD’s have been piced far too high for far too long. This is by far the best way to share music and I’ve stumbled across a number of artists that I would never have come across if I had to spend £10 or so on a CD that only had 2/10 good track.
Comment by Winthrope — March 4, 2009 @ 12:25 pm
I am not surprised by these results.I have not knowingly downloaded,but I taken issue this any organisation that is seeking prevent me doing so because : a)I have collected albums since the 70s
and gone to the buy CDs b)I resent being forced to pay again for a THIRD time by downloaded such again.
I sympathise with new artist(s)putting music in the net as
such bands tend to be not to my taste, I don’t want to anyway!
Comment by Bob H. — March 5, 2009 @ 8:05 pm
The music industry is to blame for much of their woes. If they took their heads out of their asses they’d probably realise that downloading (just like analogue taping from the radio or vinyl they tried to criminalise back in the day) is actually beneficial for the business. The only reason they are up in arms about downloading is because they still don’t know how to make money from it. The balance of power has shifted away from these companies back to the consumer. The irony is, most of the major record companies were or are owned by the electrical giants that produce the hardware to facilitate copying or downloading music.
Comment by Cool J — April 10, 2009 @ 9:20 am
Thanks for posting, definitely going to subscribe! See you on my reader.
Comment by JessicaTes — May 10, 2009 @ 3:34 pm
Very nice blog. I totally agree with your thoughts.
Comment by ArianaBind — May 13, 2009 @ 10:40 am