Jari Ketola
27 Apr 2004 10:24
The number of people downloading music on the Internet has increased according to a survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Between November 2003 and March 2004 there was a 27 percent increase in the number of downloaders, which translates to an increase from 18 to 23 million.
The survey was ran among 1371 users who were using both peer-to-peer networks, such as Kazaa and LimeWire, and online music stores, such as iTunes and Napster.
Fourteen percent of the online users surveyed had stopped downloading from the Internet. A third of those said the reason was the legal actions taken against P2P downloaders by RIAA. The number of Kazaa users dropped by five million, but most of those switched to other, smaller P2P services.
The study also had the following to say about the number of legal download service users: "While online music services like ITunes are far from trumping the popularity of file-sharing networks, 17 percent of current music downloaders say they are using these paid services. Overall, 7 percent of Internet users say they have bought music at these new services at one time or another, including 3 percent who currently use paid services."
Source: PCWorld.com