Study finds file-sharers buy ten times more music

April 21, 2009 | Terrence Russell | Comments |

A new report from BI Norwegian School of Management shows illegal file-sharers are more likely to purchase music from legitimate sources than other web users.

I know, I know. The whole thing sounds questionable, but here’s how it comes together: Ars Technica reports that researchers monitored the music download habits of 1,900 web users age 15 and above. Over time, the study found that users who downloaded music illegally from P2P file-sharing sites like BitTorrent ultimately made ten times as many legit music purchases than the law abiding users. The study also found that online music stores like iTunes and Amazon MP3 were preferred for the pirates’ paid music purchases over traditional brick-and-mortar record stores.

What’s interesting is that this news comes hardly a week after Swedish courts convicted the founders of The Pirate Bay, a file-sharer search engine. With the surprise conviction came a massive exodus from the site, and now many are questioning the future of similar file-sharing hubs. Ultimately, BI’s pro-P2P study could prove a boon to the file-sharing community at a time when its litigious mettle is being tested.

Of course, the music industry isn’t buying this. But it’s worth noting that the results resemble the outcome of a similar study done by the Canadian Record Industry Association in 2006. However, in its study the CRIA found that a surprising three out of four P2P users circled back to purchase tracks they’d previously downloaded illegally. Combined with the findings of the Norwegian study, these results could give P2P users ammo against heavy handed anti-piracy groups like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). With a large enough data set file-sharers could hypothetically argue that “free” access to music ultimately serves as a discovery tool for bolstering sales.

Still, until more compelling info like this comes to the light, the record industry will continue to use file-sharers as its whipping horse while revenues continue to decline.

[Photo: flickr/automatthais]

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About the Author, Terrence Russell

Terrence writes about online video and digital media licensing for Venture Beat. When he isn't binging on the newest television series to hit the web, Terrence contributes to WIRED Magazine and Wired.com.

  • Maybe the revenues of the music industry is declining as the content and quality is lower than ever before.
    "Po-Po-Po-Poker face"
  • This isn't that unbelievable. It's a selection bias in the sample. People who seek out music illegally are expoesd to a ton of music. They are also pretty obviously into music. They have enough passion for it that they go out and spend time seeking out new music. It's not like MTV is a tastemaker anymore.

    Personally, I go in waves of music purchases. But, the amount of time I spend on free music streaming sites has an enormous correlation to my music purchases. Not exactly P2P, but similar.
  • Justina
    Sounds like an example straight from the book Wikinomics. If you haven't read it, you should. Of course, I bought the podibook for my ipod via iTunes...
  • Great research and definitely something to think about. Music addicts download more and also buy more, that's now news. But I didn't know they were buying so much more!
  • Steve
    The thing is, what the study says is "if you are into music enough to p2p, then you are also a buyer of music." It's no surprise that my wife, for example, who is a web user that is only a casual music listener, doesn't buy much music.

    The question that is relevant is "if you take away p2p from people who also have been proven to buy music (while still using p2p services), does their buying trend go up or down?"
  • Bas
    A mistake in here. BitTorrent is not a file-sharing site, just like Firefox.com is not a site about surfing the web. BitTorrent is an application.

    Thanks for sharing. There are some similar researches that show the same; one commissioned by the Canadian government even. Although reports of IFPI/RIAA quote research reports that show negative correlations of course.
  • Actually.. bittorrent isn't even av application, it's a technology, used by the applications you use to download content from the users of torrent-hosting sites.
  • christy
    whipping horse?