IFPI study finds P2P music piracy does indeed hit CD sales

10 Nov 04 01:03 by Seán Byrne in category Uncategorized To news archive

While we
have seen plenty of studies that show file sharing has either a href="http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/9948" target=_new>negligible or positive
effect on Album CDs, another recent study actually shows downloading albums does indeed reduce album CD sales.  The US National Bureau of Economic Research studied the download and purchase habits of 412 students.

This
study reveals that for every five albums downloaded results in one less sale,
contradicting a previous study that estimate 15% of P2P music downloader’s spend
more on music.  The IFPI found that for every three former CD buyers who
start sampling music from P2P networks, two will either discontinue or cut back
on purchasing music.  Another interesting part of the study indicates that
those who do purchase
CDs value their music
more than those who download music. 

The students who took part in the study obtained 1,209 albums of which 617 where purchased and the other 592 where downloaded.  But if the ability to download was not available, the students would still have purchased those 617 albums, along with purchasing a further 154 albums that they would have downloaded otherwise.  Quakester2000 submitted the following news via our  news submit:

src="http://www.cdfreaks.com/contentimages/newsimages/1119911838" align=right border=0
> Record sales in the US have fallen because of people using the internet to download albums, a study suggests.  The report, commissioned by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, studied the habits of 412 students.

It said the US music industry lost one fifth of a sale for each album downloaded from the internet.

The study contradicts a previous report, conducted in 2002, which said swapping songs online had no negative effect on music sales.


That report, by Harvard and North Carolina universities, said high levels of file-swapping had an effect that was “indistinguishable from zero”.

Other research quoted by the IFPI global music industry body has estimated some 15% of users who download music illegally go on to spend more on music.

But the IFPI added that for every one person who uses file-sharing networks to sample music, a further two will cut back on their purchasing, or stop buying music altogether.

If the student’s buying habits were studied after they already have obtained their albums (likely the case in this study), then surely then surely they would say those albums they sampled to purchase would still be the ones they would have purchased had downloading not be available. 

A better way to study student’s habits would be to find out what albums the students are and maybe interested in at the beginning of the study.  If a student is unsure of an album, then they are less likely to purchase it.  However, if the student was asked at the end of the study if they would have purchased this same album if downloading was not available, then the answer would have more likely been yes this time since the student had already sampled the music by this stage. 

The likely reason students say they would have purchased
more CDs at the end of the survey is that they may have not realised that those
albums they would have purchased are not as good as they had thought.  I
heard of many people saying how nice an artist’s song is on the radio only to
find out when they purchased the album that they did not like the other
tracks!  In this case, these people would have been put off purchasing the
album had the sampled the same artist’s tracks and href="http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/10109" target=_new>heard how bad they
sound.

Source: BBC News – Music

10 Comments

cerberus
Posts: 2158
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 01:35
What reduce album CD sales is the lack of good music release. They release cds with one good song and the rest is just crap...
agomes
Posts: 1232
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 01:46
Just add high price to you crap classification and you get even a better reason. They like to say DVD is the faster growing entretainement market ever...would be interesting to know the percentage of Cd sales deviated to DVDs. And the percentage of present releases that will be around within 2 to 5 years times...nobody will remember them for sure...not even the ones that pay for it now will ever listen to them. ...
Zod
Posts: 666
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 05:40
This is the way I always assumed it worked. It would be silly to say download music has no effect on sales. I just didn't think it was a 1:1 relationship like the RIAA would want us to think. That everyone downloaded album is a lost sale. But downloading mp3's has made me buy less albums. I hears a cool song on the radio but then I found out the rest of the album isn't so good. 10 years ago I probably would of bought it, now I don't, neither do I listen to it anymore. now I don't have to buy as much crap
Ranmacanada
Posts: 292
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 07:56
I would have to agree. If more of the music was actually good, and not just overmarketed CRAP, then I am sure that we would be buying more. If an artist is good, you would not have to spend 20x the amount of money you pay the artist on marketing.
fl0PPsy
Posts: 13
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 08:31
Downloading has just given the customer a better mechanism for choice. At the end of the day record companies are getting pissed because ppl wont just buy any old crap they dish out anymore!!!
Roj
Posts: 434
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 13:03
I personally have bought more than a few titles that I've downloaded (when I could find the damned things - some of the stuff I wanted isn't readily available). There are a few things that would help from personal experiences, some of which have already been iterated here: 1) No more "one hit wonder" albums with one or two good tracks and the rest filler. That's just a gouge. A pox on thee for releasing it. 2) You retailers need to get your s**t together. Just because you want to batch your orders doesn't mean that I'm prepared to wait six weeks while you sit there with your thumb up your a** and your mind in neutral. I'm the customer which makes me god - you don't exist without me. Deal with it. 3) Drop your damned prices. It's getting better but when a new album costs $15 CDN across the board (I don't care who is releasing it and in what category), it'll make it much less a case of theft from the customer's wallet and much more a case of buying enoyable music for a reasonable price. 4) I want custom CDs. A track from here, a track from there and all for 0.75C a song. Make it happen. I won't even discuss the buck a song lossy downloads - I spit on that crap. That should be 0.50C a song and lossless - period. Finally, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Both sides will indulge in that scenario to try and prove their "points". YMMV.
GristyMcFisty
Posts: 634
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 13:32
Perhaps most importantly of all, since when have students got money to spend money on inflated prices CDs?
ripit
Posts: 5912
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 14:47
I second that. Students may say they would have been likly to have bought it when surveyed but the fact is many are too poor to buy a lot of cd's or anything eles. College is very expensive and the time it takes limits how many hours you can work. There were plenty of things (and I do mean plenty) that I wanted or needed that I could not afford to buy when in college. How many cd's could you have bought for the cost of a single 100$ text book?:S
LoneWolf15
Posts: 298
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 15:49
Let's look at one other thing. I forget what IFPI stands for, but I seem to recall them being a tool of the RIAA, or closely akin to them. Could it be that someone is looking for certain results, and then finding a way to get them, rather than going about this objectively? If I were the recording industry, this would then give me the chance to say "See, things are as bad as we said" since the US government has been largely sympathetic, especially the senators whose pockets they have lined, giving me a chance to "help" propose new laws making all file sharers criminals. Sounds about right.
suhksb
Posts: 83
Posted on: 10 Nov 04 18:21
duh....

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