75% of consumers think it’s OK to swap music on the web, Harris reports

Bad news for music marketers who are fighting to get consumers to pay for music online: 75% of American agree with the statement: “downloading music for personal use is an innocent act and should not be prohibited." That’s the latest report of results of a Harris Interactive survey of 2,306 adult Americans. The percentage of adults who believe that music downloading does not break the law coincides almost exactly with the percentage of teens who believe that.

The survey asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement: “Downloading and then selling the music is piracy and should be prohibited, but downloading for personal use is an innocent act and should not be prohibited."

Respondents justify the downloading of music by citing the high prices of CDs. 70% agree with the statement: "If the price of CDs was a lot lower, there would be a lot less downloading of music off the Internet."

Harris also notes that the music industry may have to undertake an educational campaign to get consumers to understand the ramifications of their actions. In spite of their belief that downloading music is an innocent act, 64% agree that “musicians and recording companies should get the full financial benefit of their work.”

Harris reports that the beliefs are held equally no matter the respondent’s political orientation: “Agreement with the three statements is at virtually identical levels among Republicans and Democrats, and liberals and conservatives,” Harris reports.

54% of respondents agree that downloading music for free from the Internet is no different from buying a used CD or borrowing a recording from a friend.

“All of this suggests that the music industry is fighting an uphill battle in winning the hearts and minds of Americans to support prohibitions against downloading. Their opportunity is to make the as yet unmade link in the public`s consciousness between downloading and its financial impact on musicians and recording companies,” the Harris report says.