ReachCustomersOnline.com

Musicians & Music Downloads

Posted by TimSlavin at April 30, 2004

I got an email this week from Pew Internet Project that offers draft results from their survey of 2,755 musicians and their attitudes about downloading their music free online and its impact on their business and their careers. The report is called Preliminary results of survey of musicians. Some of the findings:

• Some 35% of this sample agree with the statement that file-sharing services are not bad for artists because they help promote and distribute an artist’s work; 23% agree with the statement that file-sharing services are bad for artists because they allow people to copy an artist’s work without permission or payment. And 35% of those surveyed agree with both statements.
• When asked what impact free downloading on the Internet has had on their careers as musicians, 37% say free downloading has not really made a difference, 35% say it has helped and 8% say it has both helped and hurt their career. Only 5% say free downloading has exclusively hurt their career and 15% of the respondents say they don’t know.
• 67% say artists should have complete control over material they copyright and they say copyright laws do a good job of protecting artists .
• Fully 83% of those in the survey say they provide free samples or previews of their music online. And strong pluralities say free downloading has a payoff for them. For instance, 35% of them say free downloading has helped their careers and only 5% say it has hurt. Some 30% say free downloading has helped increase attendance at their concerts, 21% say it has helped them sell CDs or other merchandise; and 19% say it has helped them gain radio playing time for their music.

If you're interested in this issue, and have not seen it, also be sure to read the recent report, The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis (PDF, 52 pp). It's written by two professors, independent of the music business, who prove (statistically, at least) that free downloads have had zero impact on record sales. Professors don't have the recording industry's budget for media and lawyers but their report (and the Pew research data) are valuable voices in this debate.

Thanks again for your site visits and reading today. See you next week!

Tim

Comments

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: