Last week the ARIA relased the results of a survey that claimed file sharing is killing the Australiam music industry. There were questions:

Music industry analyst Phil Tripp sent in a long list of queries last week, most of which I thought merited answers. I sent most of them across to ARIA last Friday and requested a reply by today.

Yesterday, ARIA sent me a reply. It states: "Adrian Goldsmith from Quantum Market Research, who undertook the research on illegal music for ARIA, has compiled this statement in response to the various questions you refer to. I (the contact person for ARIA whom I wrote to) have been requested by ARIA management to forward this statement on to those media seeking clarification on the questions raised and if you wish to pursue, to contact Adrian Goldsmith at QMR."

The statement from Goldsmith says: "I refer to the questions forwarded to ARIA in relation to the research methodology. These questions were initially sent to us by Phil Tripp and we have responded to him in the following terms.

"As mentioned in the media briefing, Quantum Market Research is a reputable, long-standing and highly successful independent market research consultancy. Our research has been at the forefront of public and private enterprise decision-making for more than 30 years and we are therefore angered by the approach you've taken to attack the research and in the process, potentially damage our reputation - and with such a poorly informed perspective at its foundation.

"Quantum is more than comfortable with the methodology and content of the study, and our interpretation of the research findings. The findings accurately reflect the views of the Australian population at the time of the study and can be relied upon to give a snapshot of the current state of CD burning and file-sharing activities amongst 10+ year olds. I reiterate that all of the data reported and used by ARIA directly reflects the answers provided by respondents to Quantum's survey.

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