Thieving British teens average 842 illegal tracks per iPod

Davey Winder
Thursday, 19 June 2008 02:48

Your IT - Entertainment

Interestingly though, some 80 percent of those P2P users would be willing to pay for legal DRM-free music on a flat rate basis using the same file-sharing technology.

Ex-Undertones lead singer, Feargal Sharkey, is now the Chief Executive of British Music Rights and believes the music industry should draw great optimism from the survey findings. "It is quite clear that this young and tech-savvy demographic is as crazy about and engaged with music as any previous generation" Sharkey says, adding "contrary to popular belief, they are also prepared to pay for it too. But only if offered the services they want."

What they want, it seems, is a legal file-sharing service where music from anywhere in the world could be downloaded and kept forever. In stark contrast to that 80 percent figure, only 35 percent expressed an interest in a streaming service without the permanent copy factor.

Be it streaming or sharing, a surprising 63 percent said they would still buy CDs as well as use such a digital service. It appears that a physical hard copy, along with the artwork and lyrics, still mean a lot to music fans of all ages.

Technology has changed the way consumers copy and share music, and increased the value of these activities, there can be no doubt about that. However, Sharkey warns "it is clear that the financial gains are not necessarily feeding back to the creators: artists, composers and songwriters."

The key challenge, as far as the music industry is concerned, remains how best to reposition itself to build new relationships with artists and music consumers alike.