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Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them...
Quote:
Piracy not raiding CD sales
The enforcement arm of the Australian music industry has dismissed damaging overseas research that found illegal music sharing actually increased CD sales. The study, conducted by two researchers at the University of London for the Canadian Government, found people downloaded songs illegally because they wanted to hear them before buying or because they were not available in stores.
"We estimate that the effect of one additional P2P (peer-to-peer) download per month is to increase music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year," the researchers found. The findings, based on a study of 2000 Canadians, fly in the face of years of expensive campaigning by the music industry worldwide, which claims file sharing costs it millions of dollars a year in lost revenue.
Individual file sharers in the US were sued and hit with exorbitant fines on the back of such claims - Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old single mother, was recently fined $US220,000 ($239,000) for sharing 24 songs on Kazaa. Numerous file sharing sites were shut down by music industry investigators this year, most recently the invite-only site OiNK. Ironically, the free publicity the move generated has led to an explosion of new file sharing sites in its wake.
The local music industry's anti-piracy unit, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), has threatened to start suing Australians if local ISPs don't police their users' file sharing habits. But the Canadian study suggests file sharing is not the cause of the music industry's problems and is actually beneficial to music sales.
MIPI general manager Sabiene Heindl insisted the study's results did not translate to Australia. She pointed to a telephone survey of 1000 Australians aged 14 to 74, conducted by Quantum Market Research last year, which found 57 per cent of those who downloaded via P2P file sharing programs rarely or never went on to purchase the music legitimately.
"It's not rocket science to work out that if you get your music for free, why would you go out and buy it," Ms Heindl said. "Of course 'true fans' are hopefully in a different category and we encourage them to do the right thing and get the music from a legitimate source." Ms Heindl said there were many places other than file sharing networks where people could try music before they buy, "including record company and artist sites themselves".
MIPI wants ISPs to voluntarily send infringement notices and disconnect users identified as having engaged in illegal downloading, but it has met significant resistance from the ISPs. The Federal Government has been reluctant to get involved so far, with the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, recently telling all parties to go back to the negotiating table.
A recent survey conducted by GfK found 40 per cent of Australian internet users admitted to illegally downloading music.
Research firm IBISWorld estimates the music industry loses $100 million a year in revenue as a result of piracy, with illegal channels accounting for about 11 per cent of all music acquired by the general population. The pervasiveness of P2P file sharing and music piracy has led some bands, such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, to embrace it.
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, dismayed at the high cost of CDs in Australia, recently encouraged fans at a Sydney concert to pirate the band's music. Reznor has since been working with fellow musician and friend Saul Williams on a concept album, The Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust, which has been released first as a digital download. The basic album is free but higher quality versions can be bought for $US5.
Radiohead recently released its new album, In Rainbows, as a digital download, saying fans could pay whatever they liked for it. But even the promise of a free album wasn't enough for many file sharers, who obtained it illegally anyway as opposed to going through the Radiohead site. Forbes, citing statistics from illegal download tracker Big Champagne, reported 240,000 people downloaded the album illegally on its first day of release. The number had risen to over 500,000 just days later.
"It's quite simply easier for folks to get the illegal version than the legal version," Big Champagne chief executive Eric Garland told Forbes. Sales figures for the first six months of the year, released by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), show total physical music sales dropped by almost 16 per cent in unit terms, but legal download sales increased by just under 90 per cent.
The Canadian study found no statistically significant relationship between illegal P2P downloads and paid-for digital downloads from stores such as iTunes. In other words, it found file sharing neither increased nor decreased the likelihood of legal download purchases. IBISWorld predicts that by 2010, legal online music will comprise 22.4 per cent of all music sales in this country, with online delivery replacing the manufacturing of pre-recorded media within the next five to 10 years.
Interesting...
11-14-2007, 11:42 PM
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... Post #2
me and my house-mate were discussing the same thing yesterday. And he quoted a study like this. I was sooo shocked. I am deffo sure piracy goes against sales...
11-14-2007, 11:44 PM
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... Post #3
There's a piece of software I was given on a cd with tonnes of pirated stuff. This was years ago, when I was around 16. I played around with it and liked it. Anyway, when I got to uni, told a lot of the profs about it, and now it's the primary software of it's type we use. Used in a lot of classes as well. They must've made thousands (or tens of thousands) off of that one pirated cd. Lucky buggers. Should give me a medal.
11-14-2007, 11:47 PM
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... Post #4
And for the Radiohead album, I attempted to download it off of there site, but it was continually down. If I'd known where to download it illegally I probably would have.
Just thought of the other pirated software I'd used - CM2. Friends brought over a pirated version (probably couldn't get the original in Kuwait back then anyway). I called it a crap spreadsheet. They left it over. I was hooked Bought all originals after that.
11-14-2007, 11:50 PM
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... Post #5
Think I read a similar article in the Guardian last week and the fundamental flaw in this is that no one can explain the reason for the decrease in sales.
11-14-2007, 11:53 PM
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... Post #7
Originally posted by TheCranker:
Think I read a similar article in the Guardian last week and the fundamental flaw in this is that no one can explain the reason for the decrease in sales.
Sales have been falling for some time though haven't they? Even before the likes of Napster started up? I'm sure i've read something somewhere about how decreases in sales are in line with trends.
11-15-2007, 12:02 AM
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... Post #9
Originally posted by TheCranker:
Think I read a similar article in the Guardian last week and the fundamental flaw in this is that no one can explain the reason for the decrease in sales.
lack of quality artists and quality albums I expect, apart from sheep who buy anything the X-Factor brings out - others are harder to persuade to buy an album until they have an idea on how good/bad it is
although I guess price probably comes into it as well as supermarkets probably take a huge chunk out of HMV and Virgin (well Zavvi's profits) Zavvi is such a dire name
Yet another study suggesting piracy doesn't affect sales, and may actually INCREASE them... 
Bought all originals after that.
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