Few tangible consequences leads youth to resume music downloading in face of suits

Canadian youth are seeing few consequences in taking advantage of free music downloading services, according to a recent study, and are downloading in greater numbers as a result. The number of youth using peer-to-peer applications such as Kazaa isn’t at its all-time high levels as it was before a spate of publicity about legal actions taken against pirates, but the activity is on the upswing, according to the Solutions Research Group’s (SRG) latest poll. In its study, SRG finds that 51% of Canadian teens aged 12-19 downloaded music files in the spring of 2004 on a past-month basis. The company notes that this is lower than the peak of 60% in the spring of 2003, but significantly higher than the 40% who were doing so in the immediate aftermath of the Recording Industry Association of America’s legal action in the winter of 2003. The study also notes that among young adults 20-29, 28% downloaded music files in spring 2004, down only marginally from a peak of 31% in early 2004. SRG head Kaan Yigit says the legal action, both south of the border and here, had an immediate impact and significantly raised awareness about copyright issues with young people. But, he warns, the effect is wearing off. "A couple of months passed by, and you look around and do you know anyone who’s been sued and jailed? No? Ok, that means even after all of this publicity that really, there’s no consequence. Nothing’s happening to anybody. I can just get out there and download again. We said, this idea that it’s hard to resist, especially if you’re a younger person…Not only is it irresistible, but also there’s something now almost cool about it. If I’m a 17-year old shit-disturber…you’d be, like, ‘yeah man, I’ve downloaded thousands.’" The upswing in downloaders comes despite greater awareness that the activity operates on the legal fringes. Among teens and young adults 12-29, 42% agree with the statement that "downloading is theft", up seven points from 35% in 2003. The level of disagreement dropped from 53% over the same period to 36% as the number of "fence-sitters" - those who neither agree nor disagree - rose from 11% to 21%, according to SRG’s findings. Ironically, the survey, which was conducted in May 2004, sees greater numbers of youth decrying downloading as illegal even as the Copyright Board of Canada’s December 2003 private copying decision, reinforced by Justice Konrad Von Finckenstein’s decision in the BMG et. al. case, seem to indicate that it is not illegal to download files, and even putting those files in a shared drive may be a protected activity. The survey also finds that only 8% of Canadians have ever visited a for-pay download site. Further, four in five visits were simply to browse, not buy. Yigit says the industry is facing a crisis of value as audiences appear unwilling to pay a standard $0.99 for a track of music. "For a couple of tracks, people are fine with it. But, somebody said in one of the qualitative groups related to this project, ‘you know, if you download 20 songs to make a CD, you might as well go out and spend 20 bucks to get a CD with a jacket for it.’ They’re thinking, where’s the discount off the retail price for this," Yigit says. "The sense we have is, from both our quantitative research and qualitative research, is that the value-for-money proposition at $0.99 is weak, at best. Obviously, of course, it’s because there’s free substitutes out there…but even then, the $0.99 price point is an artifact from the old price model…That’s not translating." He adds that Canadians have more options than ever on which to spend entertainment dollars, including cellphones and ringtones, DVDs, and other choices. His numbers show that the number of people who agree that a CD is a good value has dropped from 57% in 1996, 54% in 2000, to 46% in 2004. For those Canadians who are buying online, Yigit says few are buying whole albums, and that most customers are cherry-picking a few songs from albums that they wouldn’t otherwise buy.

Few tangible consequences leads youth to resume music downloading in face of suits

Broadcast | July 13, 2004

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