The number of American Internet users who say they download music or share files online has increased slightly, but continues to sag well below peak levels
WASHINGTON, April 26 -- The recording industry campaign against those who download and swap music online has made an impact on several major fronts, but the number of Americans downloading music and sharing files online has increased, according to the most recent survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The Project’s national phone survey of 1,371 adult Internet users conducted between February 3 and March 1, 2004 shows that 14% of online Americans say that at one time in their online lives they downloaded music files, but now they no longer do any downloading. That represents more than 17 million people. However, the number of people who say they download music files increased from an estimated 18 million to 23 million since the Project’s November-December 2003 survey. This increase is likely due to the combined effects of many people adopting new, paid download services and, in some cases, switching to lower-profile peer-to-peer file sharing applications.
“Last January we reported that after the recording industry lawsuits were launched into the public eye, there was a considerable drop in the percentage of Internet users who said they were downloading music or sharing files,” said Mary Madden, a Research Specialist at the Pew Internet Project who co-authored the new report. “We wanted to follow up on these findings as soon as possible to see if this would be a consistent trend. And while it’s clear that the industry’s legal campaign has made a lasting impression in the minds of American Internet users, we are also seeing evidence that a segment of users are simply moving away from the most popular and highly monitored file-sharing networks and are instead using alternative sources to acquire files.”
New data from Comscore MMX, based on the company’s continuously and passively measured consumer panel, show – with variations by application and month analyzed – continuing declines or stagnation in the number of people with popular peer-to-peer file sharing applications actively running on their computers.
Between November 2003 and February 2004 alone, Comscore estimates that 5 million fewer people are actively running KaZaa. At the same time, the Comscore data also show growth since last November in usage of some of the smaller file-sharing applications, such as iMesh, BitTorrent, and eMule. Moreover, March data from Comscore MMX indicate that more than 11 million U.S. Internet users visited six major paid online music services – an impressive audience considering the relative newness of several entrants to the category.
“Clearly, the RIAA’s actions and policies have caused a notable impact on many consumers’ behavior, with our research showing consistent declines in KaZaa’s audience continuing through February 2004,” said Erin Hunter, senior vice president of Comscore MMX. “At the same time, digital music providers including MusicMatch, iTunes, Napster and Wal-Mart have made great strides – in relatively few months – in drawing millions of consumers to a new breed of online alternatives.”
The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a non-profit initiative, fully-funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts to explore the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, health care, schools, the work place, and civic/political life. The Project is non-partisan and does not advocate for any policy outcomes. For more information, please visit our Web site: http://www.pewinternet.org/.
Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy - details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. Comscore MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX syndicated Internet ratings - long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers - while drawing upon Comscore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.
PressBill DaddiDaddi Brand Communications646-370-1341press@comscore.com