Downloading: a Marketing Tool

The survey wars continue: this UK survey says people are using P2P for sampling purposes, actually INCREASING not replacing CD purchases:

The survey’s findings oppose the music industry’s long-standing argument that internet downloading is responsible for a slump in CD sales, with album sales falling 5% in the last year.

Market research company Music Programming Ltd (MPL) said 87% of its respondents who downloaded music admitted they bought albums after hearing tracks through the internet.

An MPL spokesperson said: “Downloading is actually a ‘try before you buy’ tool for a significant amount of people.

“It allows people to sample new music and decide whether or not to buy it – it is not necessarily a replacement for purchase.”

….The survey also said 41% of its respondents declared themselves “heavy downloaders” – accessing more than 100 tracks – but that 34% of them still felt they bought more albums than they did a year ago.

Asked why they download music, the respondents were most likely to say it was “to check out music I’ve heard about but not listened to yet” (75%) and “to help me decide whether to buy the CD” (66%).

MPL said its survey suggested people used the internet as a way of finding out about new music, and that the industry should use it as a way of promoting new artists. [BBC]

Maybe the RIAA should be paying the P2P services rather than suing them.