Threats scare off music downloaders, NPD Group survey reports
When it comes to illegally downloading web content, threats work, according to a new survey of households who download music by The NPD Group. The number of households acquiring music files began to decrease in May, immediately after the Recording Industry Association of America instituted a well-publicized campaign threatening individual file sharers with legal action, NPD says.
In June, NPD projects that the number of households acquiring music files fell to 10.4 million, 28% fewer than April’s 14.5 million households. NPD noticed a drop almost immediately after the RIAA announcement, when households acquiring music fell in May to 12.7 million.
The media widely covered a court case in late April in which a judge ruled that individuals cannot rely on their ISPs to shield them from accountability for illegal file sharing. The decision “along with reports of subsequent legal efforts by the RIAA to target individual file sharers suggest that fear of record industry subpoenas have led many consumers to curtail peer-to-peer file sharing,” NPD says.
“Today, file sharing is the most popular method of digital music acquisition,” said Russ Crupnick, vice president of The NPD Group. “While we can’t say categorically that the RIAA’s legal efforts are the sole cause for the reduction in file acquisition, it appears to be more than just a natural seasonal decline. This decrease is sharper than the declines we’re seeing in the offline retail world. In addition, because the initial drop followed well-publicized legal efforts, there’s evidence to show that the RIAA’s tactics may be having their desired impact on reducing file sharing among consumers.”
NPD MusicWatch Digital reports that total music files acquired per month also dropped from a high of 852 million files in April to 655 million files in June. Conversely, among those consumers who continue to download files, the average number of music files acquired actually increased from 59 in April to 63 in June. “Our data suggests that the RIAA’s legal tactics have more of an effect on the attitudes and actions of lighter downloaders,” Crupnick said.
NPD MusicWatch Digital collects information continuously from the PCs of 40,000 NPD online panelists, balanced to represent the online population of PC users.
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