NEW YORK (PEW
Internet & American Life Project Website) - A new report says the percentage of Americans who download music online has been sliced in half.
Fourteen percent of internet users surveyed said they sometimes download songs. That's according to the report by the PEW
Internet and American Life Project and Comscore Media Metrix, a web tracking firm. That number was 29 percent in May, the same as in February 2001.
The US nationwide phone survey of 1,358 Internet users from November 18-December 14 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that the percentage of music file downloaders had fallen to 14% (about 18 million users) from 29% (about 35 million) when the Project last reported on downloading from a survey conducted during March 12-19 and April 29-May 20. On an average day during the spring survey, 4% of Internet users said they downloaded files. In the November-December survey just 1% said they were downloading files on any given day during the survey period.
Furthermore, data from comScore Media Metrix, based on the company�s continuously measured consumer panel, show significant declines in the number of people with peer-to-peer file sharing applications running on their computers. In fact, comScore found that usage of each of the four applications sampled � KaZaa, WinMX, BearShare and Grokster � dropped in November versus one year ago. The declines in the user base of each of these applications from November 2002 to November 2003 were:
15% for KaZaa, 25% for WinMX, 9% for BearShare, and 59% for Grokster.
Conversely, comScore has observed that in recent months a growing number of consumers have turned to a new generation of paid online music services. In November 2003, 3.2 million Americans visited Napster.com, which re-launched as a paid online music service in late October. Apple�s iTunes, which expanded to serve Windows-based PC users in mid-October, drew 2.7 million such visitors in November.
Furthermore, in the Pew Internet Project survey, the percentage of Internet users who say they share files such as music, video, picture files or computer games with others online dropped from 28% in a June 2003 survey to 20% in the November-December survey. Compared to music downloading, the drop in those who say they share music or other types of media files was less pronounced. This may reflect the large amount of media attention focused on the recording industry�s attempts specifically to curb music downloading and sharing, while efforts to target those who circulate copyrighted images or programs have been less visible. Additionally, there may be a fraction of Internet users who are simply less likely to admit to either downloading music or sharing files due to the negative media portrayal of the activity.
While multiple factors may have contributed to the decline, every nook of the music downloading world has been affected, including the parts of the population that were the most prolific users of online file-sharing networks. Steep drops in downloading were recorded among students, broadband users, young adults (those ages 18-29) and Internet veterans. The groups that recorded the steepest plunges in the percentage of downloaders were women (58% decrease in the size of the downloading population), those with some college education (61% decrease) and parents with children living at home (58% decrease). The survey was conducted among those 18 and older.
The study attributed the plunge to the recording industry's strategy of suing individual song-swappers. The industry has sued nearly 400 individuals for copyright violations since September, but most cases have been settled.
Officials say they are encouraged by the pew study but says lawsuits against individual users will continue.
