The number of music downloads plummets according to study

According to a survey by Pew Internet and American Life Project the number of Americans downloading music over the internet has dropped by over 50 per cent in six months. In May, 2003 29 per cent of Americans were downloading music from the net. In December, the number had dropped to 14 per cent.

"We have never seen another internet activity drop off to this degree," said Lee Rainie, director of Pew. "The drop-off was just striking, particularly since overall internet activity goes up and up."

Of course the truth is that the number of people who lie has increased by 50 per cent. No one in their right mind would admit to downloading music with RIAA pointing a shotgun at everyone whistling a top ten tune.

Source:
Financial Times

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 6 Jan 2004 17:52

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6 comments

A_Klingon

Quote:Of course the truth is that the number of people who lie has increased by 50 per cent.Thank you for:

* Being able to see the Forest for the Trees.
* Reminding people that they should not believe everything they read just because somebody says so.
* Realizing that vested interests will tell you anything they can to achieve their goals, if you're dumb enough to believe them.

I think Hitler once mentioned that the bigger the lie, the more people who will believe it.

And no, I did not download anything from Kazaa last night, because:

a) I don't know how to download songs.
b) I've never heard tell of a 'Kazaa'

"What a totally amazing, excellent discovery Garth!"
"Party-on Wayne!" WAY!

6.1.2004 21:08 #1

Motomatt

And hopefully CD sales have dropped 50 percent as well...

7.1.2004 03:53 #2

strcruzer

Motomatt,

I would hope so as well, I say damn the RIAA and their members! Boycott all labels that are member of the RIAA!

7.1.2004 07:46 #3

BobL

Maybe people are just realizing that most of the music one finds on services such as Kazaa is just plain crap and not worth the time to download. Between the poor qulaity, mis named songs, and the "I didn't get what it said it was" stuff, it's hardly worth the bother to download music. I think it's just a fad that's fading away.

8.1.2004 14:39 #4

A_Klingon

Can't figure you out, Bob.

I take it you don't download much, eh? Since the Canadian government has deemed, at least for the time being that downloading from a P2P is legal up here, then just let me say that using Kazaa is one of the best ways to download music that I know of, and you'll find many many hard-to-impossible-to-find items, unavailable anywhere else.

* Use Kazaa lite, not Kazaa full. No adware/spyware.
* Learn how to specify minimum bitrate before you do a song search, to avoid the poor quality sound you refer to.
* Learn how to use WinAmp or some other player to play back partially downloaded songs (or use Kazaa's own-built-in player) to avoid wasting time downloading the full song only to find it wasn't the one you were looking for.
* Learn how to do selective song searches, and take advantage of the many options Kazaa gives you.

The time you waste or save is up to you. I've got many full albums here (converted to red book audio) of which many are long out of print, just from Kazaa alone.

8.1.2004 20:48 #5

triso

Hi,

Of course, music is only one of the attractions of KaZaa. I now have a great collection of Three Stooges videos, at least 32, all featuring Curly, on DVD and at least 30 classic Looney Tooons/Disney/Merrie Melodies shorts also on DVD all of which make fun of blacks, nazis or japs (and I mean that in the classic 1930's American wartime sense).

14.3.2004 20:01 #6

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