AfterDawn: News

Unauthorized music sharing falls in UK; report

According to new data reported by The Guardian UK, the amount of UK teenagers sharing unauthorized music has fallen dramatically since 2007, while the amount of teens using streaming services has grown exponentially.

The data, based on a survey of 1000 14-to-18 year-olds, shows that pirates have moved to legal venues such as YouTube and Spotify among others.



Along with the streaming increase, up to 65 percent, illegal downloads dropped from 42 percent in December of 2007, to just 26 percent in January of 2009.

The report does state that perhaps the number has fallen so substantially for illegal downloads because users have moved on to copying music from friend's MP3 players as well as sharing using Bluetooth.

Steve Purdham, CEO of We7, adds, via the Guardian: "They may not buy an album, though they have that opportunity, but you can sell them tour tickets and a T-shirt of their favourite band."

Paul Brindley, CEO of Music Ally, added about the report: "These figures challenge the idea that filesharing will just continue to grow. While we don't think for a second that it shows the war against piracy is won, it does at least suggest that there is encouraging news for the music industry."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Jul 2009 17:02

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• 11 comments

• shummyr

  they have all moved to newsgroups or some other way of aquiring there goods other than torrents

  13.7.2009 17:41 #1

• magnets

  "they have all moved to newsgroups or some other way of aquiring there goods other than torrents "
  
  respectfully i disagree, i think that nowadays the quality of streaming is high enough to be listenable; A few years ago, we only had realplayer. Which was like lisetning to your cock in a washing machine.
  And that much more of us have the bandwidth (speed and capacity) to handle it without issue. AFAIK, only the US have "all you can eat" data plans, everyone else pays for a set allowance of data per month.

  13.7.2009 18:30 #2

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by shummyr: they have all moved to newsgroups or some other way of aquiring there goods other than torrentsThis relates to all filesharing, including torrents, P2P, newsgroups etc

  13.7.2009 20:02 #3

• Pop_Smith

  Quote:Steve Purdham, CEO of We7, adds, via the Guardian: "They may not buy an album, though they have that opportunity, but you can sell them tour tickets and a T-shirt of their favourite band." I wish the RIAA would get on this bandwagon as well. I regularly buy tickets, even with the crazy $50+ price, to go see my favorite bands and occassionally purchase merchandise other than their CDs at the shows or through the band's website(s).
  
  Peace

  13.7.2009 20:44 #4

• varnull

  We have just about everything we want.. there is nothing new worth the effort of downloading.. how much rap garbage and dance drivel can you stand before it becomes totally boring and used cd's of people you have never heard of from a charity shop seem like a better option?
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work.
  I would rather you hate me for who I am than love me for what I am not.
  “It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.” - Bruce Schneier

  13.7.2009 20:47 #5

• Blackjax

  "We have just about everything we want..."
  
  Not everything Varnull....
  
  I would like to see the people who distribute that drivel stripped, smeared with honey and tied to a fire ant hill. That would be poetic justice for what my ears have had to endure over the years.

  14.7.2009 00:24 #6

• Mik3h

  I agree, my interest in music has never been greater, but I don't find myself downloading music much anymore because I've bought so much music from the artists that I do like, and the majority of them are from the 80's-mid 90's so finding a new artist of listening to modern music rarely happens.

  15.7.2009 01:01 #7

• keith1993

  Quote:shows that pirates have moved to legal venues such as YouTube and Spotify among others.Most of the people I know don't stream from youtube they go on and rip the videos before converting to MP3.
  
  Which is just the same its just a far lengthier process they do because they think the second they install Limewire (which was always the old favourite because its simple) they'll get some sort of virus.
  
  Quote:The report does state that perhaps the number has fallen so substantially for illegal downloads because users have moved on to copying music from friend's MP3 players as well as sharing using BluetoothA few years ago they'd have been right about the Bluetooth but these days no-one has any patience for it even ripping form Youtube's easier and faster then that!
  
  As for the MP3 thing WTF's all that I've never heard of anyone doing it/never done it. Most people have iPods and nearly all players have stupid proprietary cables your not going to carry around with you.
  
  The thing they've missed is burning to disk a few years ago it was common place to burn to CD but now what happens is you burn a fair few albums and so on to a DVD-RW and lend them it then they burn some of their music to it and give you it back.
  
  Quote:"These figures challenge the idea that filesharing will just continue to grow. While we don't think for a second that it shows the war against piracy is won, it does at least suggest that there is encouraging news for the music industry." Then explain the music charts, there's not one song in them I would willingly listen to. Explain the still pathetic CD sales. Explain the stupid prices on iTunes. Explain why I have 137 hours of music I haven't paid for. Explain why I don't know a single person who's paid for music recently. Explain the slowly decreasing size of the music section in HMV.
  
  Here's the key thing nobody pays for music because its so easy not to. There's no risk in it the earlier mentioned Youtube ripper is impossible to trace. PeerGuardian although not offering any real protection simply means the companies look elsewhere they'll find someone easier just around the corner.
  

  
  
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  17.7.2009 10:27 #8

• Mr-Movies

  It is the same in the US the kids just love streaming and it isn't that the quality is great either, it really isn't in most cases if not all. It is just the new fad and kids love fads they aren't DL'n music because they are spending their time streaming and it isn't because they don't like the music being put out they still love all the hip-hop, new rap, but they are more intrigued by high school musical and all of the trivial stuff on YouTube and others a like. The fad will change to something else down the road but for now streaming is the deal. Who knows maybe they will go back to breaking their nuts on rails skateboarding but kids will be kids and it normally doesn't make sense what they are up to these days.
  
  This has to upset the RIAA and other a like organizations that their music isn't being pirated as their sales will really drop now.

  17.7.2009 10:48 #9

• keith1993

  Originally posted by Mr-Movies: It is the same in the US the kids just love streaming and it isn't that the quality is great either, it really isn't in most cases if not all. It is just the new fad and kids love fads they aren't DL'n music because they are spending their time streaming and it isn't because they don't like the music being put out they still love all the hip-hop, new rap, but they are more intrigued by high school musical and all of the trivial stuff on YouTube and others a like. The fad will change to something else down the road but for now streaming is the deal. Who knows maybe they will go back to breaking their nuts on rails skateboarding but kids will be kids and it normally doesn't make sense what they are up to these days.
  
  This has to upset the RIAA and other a like organizations that their music isn't being pirated as their sales will really drop now.Did you read my post??
  
  No-one streams it just looks like they do because that's where music is illegally downloaded from. Limewire was always the key thing but it got a bad reputation because of the stupid virus's it gave you. Its just a change in the times.

  17.7.2009 11:17 #10

• Mez

  I agree with Mr movies 100%. Kids are as mindless as lemmings. They could care less if the quality sucks and why should they try to preserve what they stream? They lack the historical prospective that it could a go away tomorrow. As a result, the teenagers I know just stream. In fact, they prefer to stream a movie than to watch the DVD if finding it would require some effort.

  20.7.2009 07:59 #11