Jari Ketola
30 Mar 2004 7:42
A study made by researchers Harvard University and the University of North Carolina has shown that illegal music downloading doesn't translate to reduced CD sales. The study tracked music downloads over a period of 17 weeks in 2002, and even high levels of swapping appeared to have noeffect on album sales.
"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."
The study is the first ever to combine statistical data from a P2P network and actual record sales figures. Harvard Business School associate professor Felix Oberholzer and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill associate professor Koleman Strumpf used statistics logs from two OpenNap servers in late 2002. The logs included about 1.75 million downloads over the 17 week period.
The music industry has been persistant in accusing P2P file sharing for the declining CD sales, while the fact remains that people are spending more money on, for instance, games and DVD-movies, as well as other types of entertainment.
Source: News.com