Will legal, unlimited download service stop illegally swapping music?
Despite the threats of legal action against illegal file sharing, the number of students and teenagers who download music illegally on the broadband internet remains unabated, the largest survey from University of Hertfordshire for UK Music showed.
Nearly 61% of the 1,808 young people questioned, were illegally swapping music on the internet. More than three-fourths (78%) would not pay to streaming music services like Spotify UK while 89% of the respondents said they would like to own music rather than listening to streaming stuff.
Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones singer and chief executive of UK Music who wrote the foreword to the report said that young people continue to share music “mainly because it’s free and they are not going to get caught”.
The 14 – 24 years age group who account for the largest part of illegal music swapping, usually have a collection of 8,000 songs or more on their computers. These people would just continue to enlarge their music collection for free using whatever technology is available, it was found. One method called ‘ripping’ helps the internet users to convert the music tracks from the videos hosted by sites like YouTube into music files.
Music stream services like Spotify did not seem to stop illegal swapping of music as 85% of the illegal music swappers would rather pay for an unlimited download service, such as Nokia’s Comes With Music. More than half of the respondents (57%) said that paid services that allow unlimited download rather than just streaming, would definitely stop illegal file sharing. This shows, how the young people take ‘owning’ music albums into a major consideration.
Intererestingly, young people still go with their habit of buying music CD albums which give them the feeling that ‘they are supporting the artist, or simply because the sound quality is better’. The report says: “The desire of respondents to actually ‘own’ a physical product remains strong — whether for tangible reasons such as artwork or sleeve notes,”
The Times reports Feargal Sharkey further saying:
“Over the past twelve months, the licensed digital music market has diversified enormously — epitomised by competition in the download market and the traction being gained by streaming services. Clearly, the shape of our entire business will continue to evolve. However, we will achieve nothing if we do not work with music fans, and young music fans in particular. They are hugely demanding in their needs, but collectively we must rise to that challenge.”
Related News: