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Legal Music Downloads Catching On

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

July 21, 2005, 11:20 AM

A recording industry interest group said that downloads of legal digital music tripled during the first six months of 2005, while illegal file sharing only saw a small increase, raising industry hopes that consumers are turning away from P2P file-sharing services.

180 million songs were downloaded in the first half of 2005 versus 57 million during the same period in 2004, a 316 percent increase. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries credited the increase to the work of member companies to campaign against illegally downloaded music through education and prosecution as well as a 13 percent increase in broadband lines.

Also helping to spread legal downloading of music is its availability -- 300 stores are now available versus 100 last year at this time.

"We are now seeing real evidence that people are increasingly put off by illegal file-sharing and turning to legal ways of enjoying music online," said John Kennedy, the IFPI's chairman.

"Whether it's the fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realization that many networks could damage your home PC, attitudes are changing, and that is good news for the whole music industry."

However, legal downloads are only 17 percent of all music downloads. According to the IFPI, 900 million illegal tracks were downloaded in the first half of the year. There is some good news however -- illegal downloading is only up three percent.

"We are not there yet. Many still appear to be gripped by a bad habit they are finding hard to break," Kennedy said. However, he warned that the industry would continue to prosecute those it found breaking the law.

The IFPI says that 14,227 suits have been filed in 12 countries since September 2003.

Add a Comment (13 Comments)

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By jeandylon

edited Sep 3, 2005 - 8:25 AM

hallo i just visited now a very interesting site where i found the best legal download music!
you can click here http://www.reviewsdotcom.com
you can find movies music games sites reviewed.
worth a click.

bye

Score: 0

By randal2k

posted Jul 22, 2005 - 11:30 AM

it isn't people leaving illegal services as much as it is people who had never got there music online now seeing it available. If it wasn't for Napster, the Recording industry and (term used very loosly) artists, wouldn't even know such a money making medium was even possible.

Law suits and other "Piracy" talk has given people the impression that the music industry was on track for this all along.

So, what can i say? I am glad that RIAA is finally catching on to another way to fill my head with Crap music and get money from people for 2nd rate entertainment... oh boy!

Score: 0

By mooseroo2004

edited Jul 22, 2005 - 8:55 AM

If you are serious about legally purchasing your music and getting the quality that you want, I would highly recommend allofmp3.com.

Russian copyright laws work differently than North American laws and you can get most songs for close to one to three *cents* each... kind of blows the big American etailers away! Why wait for prices to come down... they already have!

You also get to choose your encoder (from regular MP3 Lame all the way up to several lossless formats including DRM free AAC for the ipodders out there).

I've been using it and recommending it to friends for close to a year. No complaints and no problems. Get your tunes cheap and legal!

Score: 0

By cousinkix1953

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 7:07 PM

The big record companies used to sell the latest singles releases for 99 cents in the stores. Remember those old 45s. A few months later, they were just 39 cents each or 3 for a dollar at WOOLWORTH'S and other outlets.

New downloads are 99 cents. Why don't the prices go down when these songs are off the Top 40 playlists like vinyl once did?

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 6:32 PM

Maybe when they come down in price further, you'll get to a tipping point. It's not there yet for me, and I'd have no qualms about buying online. It's probably about 30-50¢/tune for pop stuff. It's just too easy to get it for free...

Score: 0

By shy_one

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 4:33 PM

Get rid of the protection on these music sites and i'm sure sales will increase even more many of the people use illegal downloads because the refuse to pay for an over priced cd for 1 or 2 good songs and won't buy online because they want the right to do whatever they want with the music they legally purchased.

Score: 0

By Crypton

edited Jul 23, 2005 - 1:43 AM

I agree, the protection they throw on the files limits what you can do with it. Without using tools to remove it it makes it a pain to burn to cd in regular cd for example. While the protection does not stop me, it does stop tons of others and makes them not want to purchase another song simply because of the limitation. They are trying to kill 2 birds with one stone by providing music for easy access at a somewhat low price, (though still overpriced most time cheaper to just but a cd after you add up the songs you paid for) as well as keep it from being shared illegally.

Anyways, wasting time and energy on something that they wont prevent is just killing their own profit potential. They don't see it that way as many don't but it is the truth. I would buy more myself if not for that. Most people rather hop on torrent or dc++ or some other location to get something that they do not have to tamper with when it is much quicker to go that route. Wrong maybe, but look at it this way. most of these sites, in order to listen to the music on another system, you have to transfer the digital license to do so, there is where they also get you, most limit the ammount of times you can transfer as well as limit the ammount of times you can download the song. Not eveyone can afford to backup everything, and in the event your downloads are used and you have a unfortunate mishap and your hdd dies before backup was able to be done or any other reason, then you get to hear, well you gotta buy the song again, then those people are like sorry no thnx and will dl it somewhere.

Maybe I am wrong about the way I think on this topic, but I think it just makes people look more towards illegaly gaining the file rather than go through that kind of bs. License should be just that, you buy it, it is yours. The license should remain avail on your own account online and be able to access your bought digital goods when you need them or what them.

Score: 0

By TheRecklessWanderer

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 3:41 PM

Altman: They probably took lessons from the BSA. Make outragous claims that are unsubstantiable.

Score: 0

By Scary Guy

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 2:41 PM

Personally if I purchase music it is never online. I mean quality is nothing on those unless I'm getting a fully uncompressed wav that I can burn to a CD.

I'm not going to be one of those record junkies though who use the 4000 dollar turntable in a completely padded room with 6000 dollar headphones, my hearing isn't anywhere near that good.

Score: 0

By Altman

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 1:17 PM

OK I see how they can say that 180 million songs were downloaded legally and be somewhat close. But how could they even come close on estimating the illegal downloads?

Score: 0

By animecabbit

posted Jul 22, 2005 - 5:02 AM

Get the number of total legal downloads and then add xx% to it. Easy.

However, every year or two, change it so it's dramatic enough to show a difference.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jul 21, 2005 - 3:43 PM

They can because they know some hard core people prefer not to pay at all, and will download for free and take the risks even if its practically for free. Obviously its near impossible to convert these. Make it easy and cheap enough and the rest are obviously back as online customers.

Supple and demand, business adataption at its best.

Score: 0

By Crypton

edited Jul 23, 2005 - 1:52 AM

all of their claims are estimated and based on statistics. All of their so called "loss" is also based on that.

They do the "well last year we sold xx, this year we sold xx, so this coming year we should sell xx" and when they don't hit that mark, hey they have to blame it on someone and tell their share holders something.

If user -A- does not have the money and does not buy it but instead downloads it. Chances are user -A- would have never bought it regardless if they had the money or not. This is not grounds for claiming a loss when there was not a buy potential for user -A- in the first place.

There are those dedicated fans that will continue paying whatever to get the latest song legally, but not everyone is always into music, it is like a trend. One industry may see a decrease in sales while another may see an increase. That is just how the economy works. Now days. if they all don't see increases, hey, lets blame software pirates, I have stock/share holders calling me every 2 seconds asking why the dow dropped. I have to tell them something. While we are at it, lets makes some exagerated figures and estimated losses and makes it look as legit as possible,

Ahh, the power of the media.

Score: 0

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