With all the issues about DRM (digital rights management) and music, the BBC have published a story referring to research which blows the pro-DRM arguments for music out of the water.
the report into the habits of iPod users reveals that 83% of iPod owners do not buy digital music regularly. The minority, 17%, buy and download music, usually single tracks, at least once per month.
On average, the study reports, only 5% of the music on an iPod will be bought from online music stores. The rest will be from CDs the owner of an MP3 player already has or tracks they have downloaded from file-sharing sites.
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Perhaps the only salient characteristic shared by all owners of portable music players was that they were more likely to buy more music – especially CDs.
In essence, yes, there is illegal filesharing – but this leads to more CDs being sold, which is after all, the point for the music industry. Could it be, perhaps, that people are discovering new music through filesharing that they would never have discovered by regular means, and then going out to buy more of it?
It’s quite a seductive argument to simply say ‘filesharing is theft’, and seems hard to refute, but it’s much more complex than that – filesharing can lead to increased sales for the music industry as people discover new music.
In any event, a ‘solution’ which prevents a user transferring music from their own CD to their own MP3 player is a step too far from the music industry.
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I actually find watching videos, instead of illegally downloading music, to be a better solutions and thanks to tagging its also easier to find similar artists within the genre. YouTube and Dailymotion are excellent sites to do this. I feel comfortable that i am not stealing music. I am not rich, but when something catches my ear, i will go out and buy it. If it were for those sites, and the occassional preview on Amazon (.fr or FNAC also) i’d rarely chance a purchase. iTunes is also excellent for this – i sample a lot of music, legitimately, on there also…
If memory serves the record labels are making youtube’s life difficult because of this!
(Youtube is trying to get a deal going that would allow it)
The iPod has a huge grip on the MP3 player market, but that suggests a lot of its audience share comes from casual music listeners, and people who aren’t that bothered about downloads because they can get all the CDs they need from Tesco.
Other iPod owners no doubt include a number of people who, like me, just don’t like the idea of DRM, or being restricted with what they do once they have purchased music. I can’t believe that there hasn’t been more of a backlash against oppressive DRM – especially given the unpopularity of CDs that appeared with DRM in some form
(Edit: I’m not sure I understand this point… why are you an ipod owner if you’re against their DRM policies? – Murk)