Pirates Buy More Music Than Non-Filesharing Peers

[buwish]

I admit that I like the setup of itunes and other sites that allows one to sample a track before buying it. However, the only improvement could be to be able to sample the entire song first. Sure, go a head and reduce the bitrate quality in the sample, but put the whole song up for sample. Then if they lowered their prices to something fair, say $0.75 or even lower, I'd buy more music. Small numbers tend to add up over time.

 

[cruiseoveride]

steal from artists and the music industry

steal is such a strong word. "copy" is better.

 

[ominous prime]

It's not thieving it's sharing. Music on torrents is basically free advertising, bands make a vast majority of their revenue through touring (live gigs) If you like a band, you will go see them when they come into town. If any of you aren't busy, give Dan Bull's song a listen, it's about the music industry and piracy, really entertaining found here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL9-esIM2CY

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

The set of people who pirate music are also the set of people who would normally listen to more music than those who don't pirate. So by default, they are the people who would normally spend more anyway. Now the question is: Are they spending less than they would if they didn't pirate? The fact that they spend more than their non pirating peers is sort of a trivial fact.

 

[socrates047]

I have to come clean like alot of peers i don't pay for my music, but i do support my aritist. Since i am going to buy clothes i buy them off their sites and go to their concerts. I listen to underground guys who actually advocate piracy.

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

Another way this article sort of glossed over the stats is the fact that the sample age was 16-50. The average of the 'non-pirating' group could easily be skewed by the older people who don't pirate and pay very little for music.

 

[Guest]

I have not pirated a game which I didn't eventually buy. Indie developers got my money. Pirated Sword of the stars to see if it was good, and it was, but I couldn't buy it in a brick and mortor shop. Once it hit steam, I dropped $60 for the collectors edition.

 

[redgarl]

Absolutely true, they know more bands, it's normal they buy more music...

 

[redgarl]

Bands are putting everything on myspace. By bands even put their whole new cd sometimes... these bands don't really care about sales because they know they are making profit over shows. The stupid millionaire singer era is dead, now music is extended to a new level. You can only earn money while doing live concert. These so called pirates are there when an important band is coming in town.

 

[Kohlhagen]

I download an album before it is released, and if i like it.. I will purchase the album, but otherwise i just stick with the promotional copy. This year i've only bought 3 CDs though. (Cage, Atmosphere, P.O.S. & hopefully Felt 3)

 

[chunkymonster]

Stands to reason that folks who pirate music are also the biggest music buyers. I fit into "pirate to sample then purchase" scenario. Especially after years of getting burned by plonking down $20 for a CD with only 2 songs worth listening to. This is even more annoying when you realize that CD's are a 28 year old technology and cost about $2.50 to put the product on the retail shelf. The fact that the music industry has not dropped CD prices to match the economies of scale is one of the justifications for pirating.

Illegal downloads might have hurt the music industry, say 7-10 years ago, in the heyday of Napster and other p2p clients. But, the industry and bands themselves have since adjusted their business models to account for and mitigate illegal downloads. So if full scale piracy is an issue, then perhaps more music publishers and producers need to adjust their sales methods rather than crying like babies about their music being stolen.

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

All TOO often...?

 

[phantomtrooper]

i know i have a friend who pirates but also spends a great deal on legal music as well.

 

[nevertell]

Do you purchase or pirate your music? Let us know in the comments below!

And then trace the IP and hand it out to the FBI.

 

[hardwarekid9756]

I used to pirate (I don't any more because a. don't have the bandwidth in my area any more and b. the provider throttles/disconnects). As this study shows, and my bank account reflects, when I pirated, I bought a LOT more content. I was exposed to music I wasn't previously exposed to, and bought their albums because I liked them so much. I would download games and play them, only to learn how great they are and buy them for their online capabilities. And movies... I'd download a bunch, and I'd discover a title is so good I just needed to have it for my HiDef TV on bluray. Now a days, I'm exposed to less movie, music, and games, and as a result, I don't really buy as much. I hate spending money on games without playing them because I don't know if they're good or not, and I HATE buying music from an artist unless I know the entire album kicks ass...which you can't get from a few good title tracks. And movies...I REFUSE to spend 20-30 dollars on a title only to have it suck. So, IMO, this study is spot on.

 

[ichbinyogi]

Bank Robers use Banks more than non bank robers.

Wow this is some BS pulling someething out of somewhere

 

[zak_mckraken]

I'd like to see more numbers to this "study", like the number of persons actually surveyed, but yes, I think it could be an accurate reprensentation.

If I take myself, for example: I buy for around $100 worth of CDs (yes, compact discs!) every year. I do download what one would call "illegal" music once in a while. If I like what I'm hearing, I usually go and buy the album. If the band has like 1 or 2 good songs, sorry for them then but I'm not buying it and I'm keeping the songs! I don't like one-hit-wonders sitting in my collection.

 

[dextermat]

Hopefully Sony will stop bashing on the pirates when relating that they are loosing money and wake up to see that the fact they treat their costumers like crap + movies and music is crap to be their weak point 😛

 

[o0RaidR0o]

It's FILE SHARING not PIRATING for crying out loud!!!

 

[Guest]

I don't pirate music, unless it's something so good,and unique, that it is hard to get.
Music stores don't carry everything; many records are now lost (like for instance the record:"Cokeman" (I think from yves de ruyter, or so). After the mix got public in (was it between 1997-2001?) it got lost in the sheer amounts of records published,and you could no longer get it (or very hard),9 months after the release.

also a lot of Jazz fusion music of the '70's are hard to get.

But I'm not into downloading music. And if I did,it's purely out of convenience, because there's no company that truly has ALL music available, be it on LP,tape,CD,or digital download!
The majority of stores only carry popular music.

Movies the same thing,
I doanload mainly anime which is unlicensed in the US from fansubs, only because they are hard to get.
The offering Holywood has to offer, I'm sorry, but I think it is not worth any money at all!
An occasional movie from holywood I like (that is less than one per year).
When I look at most holywood movies I can't help but think during the movie that the $3 rentingfee was too much for this type of movies.

I find the peak of movies and music was in the beginning of the '90's.
A lot of releases brought by Sony's Laserdisk where awesome releases.Movies that still gave you feelings, rather than movies now that seem to be either based around fear, or special effects, but where the story line is so boring that you'll end up falling asleep watching it...