Report finds illegal filesharing declining among UK teenagers

Valerie | 15 Jul 2009, 11:51

A new report suggests that illegal music downloading has fallen by more than a third in the last two years, as teenagers are increasingly turning to streaming sites, such as YouTube, Pandora, Grooveshark and others.  This might sound like music to executives’ ears but does this necessarily spell good news for the music industry?

According to research by The Leading Question and analyst firm Music Ally, Illegal file-sharing declined through 2008, from 22% of web users in December 2007 to 17% in January 2009. The survey of 1,000 fans also shows that many 14 to 18 year olds are now streaming music regularly online using legal services such as YouTube .

However, in this article, the Guardian argues that the picture may be more complex than a simple shift from filesharing to streaming, with people sharing music in new ways such as via bluetooth technology, on blogs, and through copying, also known as ripping content from friends’ MP3 devices.

The point remains that many people turn to file sharing networks precisely because they are unable to find the music they are looking for from legitimate sources.  As this BBC article argues, this is not surprising, since the “services that the record companies provided were unwieldy, expensive, limited and intrusive”.

Inaccessibility is at the core of the problem and is, as Stephen Fry admitted earlier this week during a speech condemning the music and film industries’ prosecution of small-scale internet pirates, the reason why he turned to BitTorrent software to view episodes of 24.

Demand is clearly undoubtedly growing for legal options. A separate survey by Ipsos MORI confirmed that two thirds of people who illegally download music online would switch to legal models if the price was right.  It argues that the creative industries need to address a gap in what they are charging and what the majority of people are willing to pay – a sticking point in these difficult economic times that has seen many creative sectors (the newspaper industry being the most prominent) reviewing their business models and striking a balance between revenue generation and giving consumers what they are demanding.

Despite the view that the research data may not be providing an entirely accurate picture, it does offer some encouragement to the music industry and shines a light on the opportunities to continue to tackle online piracy.

In a statement, Tim Walker, CEO of the Leading Question commented:

“Ultimately we believe that the best way to beat piracy is to create great new licensed services that are easier and more fun to use, whether that’s an unlimited streaming service like Spotify or a service like the one recently announced by Virgin which aims to offer unlimited MP3 downloads as well as unlimited streams.“