Dan_Shues
04-27-2004, 10:50 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- While legal fears have apparently led millions of Americans to stop swapping music on the Internet, the overall number of users who download is increasing, a survey finds.
More than 17 million Americans, or 14 percent of adult Internet users, have stopped downloading music over the Internet, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a study Sunday. Of former downloaders, nearly a third say they stopped because of the highly publicized lawsuits filed by the recording industry since last summer against more than 1,000 users.
At the same time, the study said, the number of users who say they do download music jumped to 23 million, compared with 18 million in a similar survey that Pew did in November-December 2002.
The survey attributed the boost to a combination of increased sign-ups to paid download services and a switch by users to lower-profile peer-to-peer sharing applications.
The change in usage patterns comes against the backdrop of the recording industry's campaign against unauthorized swapping of music files. Many of the resulting lawsuits have led to settlements of thousands of dollars each. Legally, recording labels can demand $150,000 per song for copyright infringement.
Men and users ages 18-29 were the ones most likely to stop, the survey finds.
The study does not distinguish between music downloaded illegally and songs bought through authorized sites such as iTunes. Seventeen percent of the current downloaders did say they are using paid services, though not necessarily as their exclusive source of online music.
Among those who have never downloaded music, three in five users -- women more likely than men -- say the lawsuits are enough to persuade them never to do so.
Even many of those still downloading music -- 38 percent -- say they are doing so less frequently because of the lawsuits.
Nonetheless, the random telephone-based study conducted in February finds that 18 percent of Internet users say they now download music over the Internet, an increase from 14 percent in a pre-Christmas survey.
And the percentage of Internet users who say they share their music, video and other files with others over the Internet increased to 23 percent in February, from 20 percent in the Nov. 18-Dec. 14 survey.
The February study of 1,371 Internet users has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
More than 17 million Americans, or 14 percent of adult Internet users, have stopped downloading music over the Internet, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a study Sunday. Of former downloaders, nearly a third say they stopped because of the highly publicized lawsuits filed by the recording industry since last summer against more than 1,000 users.
At the same time, the study said, the number of users who say they do download music jumped to 23 million, compared with 18 million in a similar survey that Pew did in November-December 2002.
The survey attributed the boost to a combination of increased sign-ups to paid download services and a switch by users to lower-profile peer-to-peer sharing applications.
The change in usage patterns comes against the backdrop of the recording industry's campaign against unauthorized swapping of music files. Many of the resulting lawsuits have led to settlements of thousands of dollars each. Legally, recording labels can demand $150,000 per song for copyright infringement.
Men and users ages 18-29 were the ones most likely to stop, the survey finds.
The study does not distinguish between music downloaded illegally and songs bought through authorized sites such as iTunes. Seventeen percent of the current downloaders did say they are using paid services, though not necessarily as their exclusive source of online music.
Among those who have never downloaded music, three in five users -- women more likely than men -- say the lawsuits are enough to persuade them never to do so.
Even many of those still downloading music -- 38 percent -- say they are doing so less frequently because of the lawsuits.
Nonetheless, the random telephone-based study conducted in February finds that 18 percent of Internet users say they now download music over the Internet, an increase from 14 percent in a pre-Christmas survey.
And the percentage of Internet users who say they share their music, video and other files with others over the Internet increased to 23 percent in February, from 20 percent in the Nov. 18-Dec. 14 survey.
The February study of 1,371 Internet users has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.