'Pirates' spend more on music than the rest of us

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 10:09

Business IT - Technology

Even the illegal downloaders are interested in paying for music. Not only are the majority of them already paying customers, but almost two-thirds said appealing new legal music services would give then a reason to abandon  unsanctioned downloading.

80% said they would be interested in buying individual tracks over the internet providing the range and price were right. That's a substantially larger proportion than the 66% of all adults that expressed interest.

If the survey's findings are correct, the revenue-maximising price for a track is 45p ($A0.82). UK prices at the iTunes Store and Amazon are typically around 79p ($A1.44), although Amazon does sell some tracks for as little as 29p ($A0.53).

Illegal downloaders were also far more likely than all adults to express interest in subscription services (72% vs 47%). The revenue-maximising price would be around £5 per month ($A9).

That would be roughly equivalent to buying an album a month at 45p per track.

While price was considered the most important factor, potential subscribers said it was closely followed the ability to transfer tracks to different players within the household, a catalogue that suited their tastes, and no restriction on monthly usage.

So by pursuing legal sanctions against illegal downloaders, the music industry is not only going after its best customers, its also threatening those that are most receptive to the idea of new business models.