James Delahunty
24 May 2007 19:10
According to research from Italy's Luigi Einaudi Foundation, file sharing of music and movies cuts into consumers' purchasing of physical products like CDs and DVDs. The research shows that nearly a third of file-sharers (30%) have cut back on the amount of physical music products they buy. Only 6% of those surveyed said that file-sharing increased their propensity to buy CDs, while 64% of respondents said their habit did not change their music buying habits.
77% of all those who said they download music have used P2P networks to obtain music, while only 23 per cent have used an authorized online service. The research showed that 31% of those questioned had downloaded music or video from the internet in the last month. Nine-in-ten of the tracks downloaded were singles (91%), predominantly current chart hits. The most popular device for playing this material was a music player (84%), followed by hi-fis and MP3 players (39%).
The most popular P2P software among those asked was eMule (51%), followed by WinMX (25%) and Kazaa (13%). Three in five of those interviewed (61%) said the bought less than one CD a month and more than 30% of this group buy no physical copies of recorded music at all. Researchers interviewed wide cross-section of Italians, with 50 per cent of respondents aged between 15 and 34 years old, 25 per cent between 35 and 44 years old and 25 per cent between 44 and 54 years old.
Nearly a third of those interviewed were office workers (29%), a quarter were students (25%) and the remainder were blue collar workers, managers, sole traders and retired people.
Source:
Press Release