It's been a good year for digital music sales, of course, with the BPI reporting that download sales in the UK have already topped 23 million, a 400% increase on 2004. That said, it's been a good year for P2P file sharing too, with a new report suggesting that, despite all the anti-download litigation, half of all digital music consumers choose to download music illegally rather than buy it from a legitimate source.
The survey, conducted by MORI for AOL, says that 75% of the downloaders they spoke to admitted they had illegally downloaded music at least once, and only one in six said they exclusively used legit download services. None of which is particularly surprising, though that half of the parents interviewed said they wouldn't stop their kids from downloading was a little strange.
The survey also said that 4 in 10 of those interviewed were confused about the rights and wrongs of downloading - ie which download platforms were legit and which ones weren't. That said, I'm a bit suspicious of the confused downloaders (and even more so of the confused parents of downloaders) that MORI interviewed in this survey because, after all, the research is being used to launch AOL's 'Play Legal' website which will provide a guide to legitimate downloading, so it was in the ISP's interest to show a lot of confusion about all this stuff.
Commenting on the survey, AOL's Head Of Digital Music told reporters: "This survey shows that there is still a lot of confusion out there about what is legal and what isn't. We see it as our responsibility to educate and inform our customers".
Of course the bigger problem isn't so much informing music fans that sharing music via P2P is wrong, rather persuading them that it is so. Which isn't so easy when the music industry is represented by millionaire rock stars and multi-national conglomerates, and when stating the music industry's case involves discussing business models and copyright law - two very tedious topics. Persuading them that the legit platforms are a damn site easier and much more pleasant to use might be easier.