Study Finds File Sharers Buy 30% More Music Than Non-File Sharers

October 18, 2012

A new study by the American Assembly finds that file-sharers buy 30 percent more music than non-file sharers. The study is consistent with many other studies that confirm that file sharers spend more on music and cultural products than those that do not. Study author Joe Karaganis has a follow-up post responding to criticisms from NPD, which has done survey work for the RIAA.

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5 Comments

Byte says:
October 18, 2012 at 5:27 pm

Another study in the Netherlands finds the same thing: those who download also spend the most, it also found that 98% still download after The Pirate Bay has been blocked/censured.

Report in Dutch: http://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/poort/Filesharing_2012.pdf

English-language portion of the site: http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html
Ki says:
October 18, 2012 at 6:01 pm

This is because people tend to find more music they like, and when they like it are more willing to pay for it or pay for more from the same group. Those who don’t tend to have the “Well, not sure if I’ll like it” feeling and buy less.
Crockett says:
October 18, 2012 at 6:34 pm

The “he said/she said” study wars will always continue. The bottom line for me is developing the best ecosystem for consumers and creators both. Because all out anarchy, I think, will actually result in less creativity (at least the amount of quality). On the other hand too many restrictions and centralized control will result in the same.

What we have going on now is no where near that concept, and the fault lies with both those who take all for nothing (freeloaders) and those who keep all for themselves (media industries). Maybe something like this … http://theoatmeal.com/comics/music_industry
Andrei Mincov says:
October 19, 2012 at 2:08 am

What a surprise
It’s no surprise that people who actively look for music (legal or illegal) will buy more of it than those who don’t.

File sharing is not determinative of one’s propensity to buy music. Active interest in listening to music is.

Of the universe of those polled who don’t download, the vast majority COULD be those who don’t care about music (legal or illegal) at all. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t mention the polling method.

For the study to have any real value, they should have been comparing the buying habits of only those who actively look for music.
end user says:
October 20, 2012 at 6:36 pm

Crockett said: The bottom line for me is developing the best ecosystem for consumers and creators both.

Here’s the thing. If pirate sites can give users what they want why can’t the labels and studios do it? After all they probably own the majority of distribution/copy rights to 70% of the music out there. How hard can it be to take your catalog of music, build a distribution site and hook it up to a payment processor? Its not and except for the digitizing of music it wouldn’t take much time to develop it. With all the money spent on litigation and bribery they could have use that to build distribution sites and buy up more rights to distribute more media.

Something is seriously wrong when were in 2013 and we can’t get access to most works of music, movies and books. Shit commercial internet has been running in full force since 1999. Why is it that only the music/movie/news and book industries haven’t been able to make it work?