Stop the presses! New data suggests that people who illegally download music are more likely to buy music from legitimate sources (iTunes, Amazon MP3, Beatport, etc.) than are God-fearing, non-illegally downloading folks. Such is the claim from a recent Norwegian study. Of course, the music industry has rubbished the claims, as it so often does.
It’s like this: researchers found that people who illegally download music actually buy 10 times as much legal music as non-illegaly downloaders. In other words, you download that downright terrible Rick Ross album from your favorite BitTorrent establishment—it’s a victimless crime!—while turning around and buying Clarity Live from Jimmy Eat World’s Web site, and then a whole bunch of house nonsense from Beatport, including Radio Slave’s “Koma Koma.” Good stuff.
EMI, one of the record labels of which it’s fashionable to hate nowadays, isn’t too sure, saying, essentially, that correlation does not imply causation. That is, just because someone downloads music from BitTorrent doesn’t automatically mean they’ll later buy music from iTunes. That, and how do you explain why music revenue is down so drastically compared to the good ol’ days. Well, that can be explained, I think, because when people buy music from iTunes they’re not necessarily buying an entire album. If I want a Chris Lake song, all I want is the song, not the entire album. In the past, if I wanted a particular song, I’d have to buy the whole album.
What we really could use is a study that looks into the percentage of illegal downloaders who also buy legal music. Imagine the headlines: “Study finds 70 percent of illegal music downloaders also buy legal music.” That’s more compelling that this study that says, “Hey, a few people who illegally download music actually buy more music than non-illgeal downloaders.”
Photo: Flickr
I know a lot of people who would fit into this category and there are a few reasons they buy music on occasion:
1. It’s illegal to get music without paying for it. It’s the equivalent of stealing, only it doesn’t seem like it because you don’t have to go into a store and walk out with it.
2. It’s a consistent experience – always good quality media (not that this is a major issue with other channels anyway…)
3. It’s easy to buy it – iTunes and Amazon have made the checkout process relatively simple, especially without DRM’s.
4. Depending on what you’re getting, it’s not really all that expensive.
I’d say that one of the great things about this country is that we have property rights and can count on the law being upheld. Yes, it’s not a perfect system, but we have a lot of rights that might not be upheld in other countries, and the patent system is definitely one great example. When it comes to music and the power the internet provides, I don’t know if there’s a perfect system. However, at least here in the United States, I think these property rights are what have helped create such a great economic system. In 20 years, we’re definitely going to be better off than we are today as a society. Once this whole music thing is worked out, I think one of the solutions might be lower pricing ($2-3/album) and no DRM, and just putting some faith that people won’t steal. It is somewhat of an honor system, but for most people who don’t know how to do torrents/newsgroups/etc., it’s not going to be worth learning for $2-3 an album.
I’m starting to see this mentality in people who used to get everything 100% through torrents, and they’re mostly going to Amazon’s MP3 stores because of how easy it is, with a low price and no DRM’s.
Interesting study. It definitely applies to me. I went for a while with getting a lot of music through bit torrent – but even during that time I was buying CDs.
Today, I discover most of my new music on Pandora and have bought dozens of those songs on Amazon. Its such a painless experience, its a fair price, and its great quality. And on top of that, I get to support the mostly indie bands I’m listening to. When I hear a few of their songs I like, I still go out and pick up the CD.
Only when I cannot find the song on Amazon (or iTunes, if Amazon doesn’t work) do I resort to bit torrent. It doesn’t happen too often anymore, and I would happily pay the price for the song. You know, if the good record companies and bands would make them available that way.
Sorry, not buying it. If I were to google up, say, a torrent for every frigging major and minor bit of song and BGM from an obscure anime from the 80s, I wouldn’t then go pay $120 for it. That’s just logical.
no kidding, but what you fail to realize is that you don’t understand the article. What they are suggesting is that people that dl music tend to also buy it. Probably not the same album, but another album that they feel is worth of purchasing. I myself do this…I own around 500 albums and still dl mp3s so figure that one out. So before you hear yourself speak tomorrow think first. Maybe what comes out of your mouth will be something intelligent.
Curiously, how have they learned that?
I mean, how can they be sure that the person downloaded song via torrent and then bought it legally?
Have they installed spyware (Joking)?
Or do they just ask an anonymous question? If last, I do not have full trust to anonymous poll.
This study is ridiculous. If you looked at a population of people who steal candy from Wal-Mart, I bet they a) also buy a lot of junk food b) probably weigh more than the non-thieves, junk-food buyers. Correlation doesn’t equal causality, folks.
I think some people commenting the study fail to realise that there does not need to be a causality relation for the study to be valuable. It would be enough to show that people downloading music are also the ones that contribute the most to financing the music industry by buying its products. It doesn’t matter if they buy more after having downloaded music or just because they are more interested in music in general.