June 17, 2008
Young People Are Willing to Pay for Legal Music File Sharing, Survey Finds
A new study from the University of Hertfordshire, in England, found that most young music pirates say they’re willing to pay for legal file-sharing services.
The survey, conducted on behalf of British Music Rights (a music-writing and publishing-industry group), found that 63 percent of respondents age 14 to 24 copped to illegally downloading music. Of those who share music illegally, 80 percent say they would use a legal file-sharing service, such as an unlimited download service for which they paid a monthly fee.
Among other interesting findings, the survey also showed that less than half of all respondents had learned about copyright. Those who knew about copyright were more likely to have learned about the concept from “informal sources (friends, newspapers, Web sites) than from formal lessons at school or university.”
Rather than forecasting the doom and gloom common in industry accounts of young people’s attitudes toward stealing music, this study was surprisingly optimistic: “[I]t is quite clear that this young and tech-savvy demographic is as crazy about and engaged with music as any previous generation. Contrary to popular belief, they are also prepared to pay for it, too. But only if offered the services they want.”—Catherine Rampell
Posted on Tuesday June 17, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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I’m not at all surprised by the findings in this report. Although outside the age group polled, I (and most all of my friends who d/l music) are happy to pay reasonable prices for the music we want. And that’s the crux of the matter – don’t force me to take the ton of garbage music to get the few ounces of desired tunes.
— Gary Jun 18, 01:45 PM #
I’m not particularly surprised that youth would pay for a legal file-sharing program.
However, the service would need to keep the desires of these users in mind. Users of Limewire and its ilk instigate the transaction. Users balk at some current services because of the bombardment of unwanted information and static sales mechanisms. Vestiges of former sales models should be shed and the ideas behind the successful, although illegal programs should be embraced. Also, many of the files shared are unique- radio recordings, concert recordings, rare and out of print material. File-sharing programs work best as dynamic facilitators of interaction. They are akin to a small town filled to the brim with radio stations. A legal system could easily tag items to keep track of usage. Copyright can easily be respected. It could be a benefit that so few of these ‘pirates’ understand copyright. Too often do those who are acquainted with the basics of copyright law understand it in only a narrow manner- a mono-directional interaction between the copyright holder and the user, as if copyright can only be upheld in a sales booth-type model. Copyrighted material need not pass through the hands of the author; merely the appropriate contractual agreements need be respected. A legal file-sharing program doesn’t need centralized organization in order to respect copyright. The owners of the service must simply monitor interactions, pay out royalties as appropriate, and deal with illegally obtained material (concert recordings) with arbitration to the best interest of all parties (the artists, the production and distribution companies, the file-sharing service, and the individual with illicit material) to conform into a proper copyright situation without need of lawsuit thereby enriching all parties involved as well as harnessing the creative power of an non-centralized network. A pay service that included user uploads with appropriate vetting, content improvement, a growing, permanent file repository stocked by the file-sharing company, and a professionally designed interface while keeping the power of a dynamic network would be a vast improvement over both Limewire-type illegal programs and centralized iTunes-type programs. Also, allowing user input increases small label business as well as giving direct royalties to artists either self-produced or artists of out of print music on defunct labels.
— Aaron Jun 18, 07:03 PM #