A Canadian Recording Industry Association report tells us what common sense has told us all along - people who take the time to download and share music files are also likely to buy music. Copyright lawyer and e-freedom advocate Michael Geist analyses the report. Unlike other research reports mentioned by CRIA, this one includes full details about the questions asked, and the answers received. It paints a much more balanced picture than the usual fear-mongering stats claiming musicians will never make money again.
Says Geist:
"In summary, CRIA's own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders' computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services. I've argued many of these same things, but now you don't have to take my word for it; you can take it from the record labels themselves."
What the report doesn't mention is that many music fans have been actively boycotting music companies for years because of their failure to embrace online distribution of music. I suspect if the music companies had been in the vanguard (instead of being dragged kicking and screaming into online music distribution), their sales would have stayed steady or increased, despite file sharing.
Tags: CRIA, music, filesharing, downloading, sales, research
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