The International Federation of the Phonograpic Industry (IFPI) said on Thursday that the number of legal, paid downloads had tripled during the first half of 2005. This is great news for the RIAA and MPAA as more and more people switch to the legal download side of things.
First, the IFPI showed a tremendous amount of data including 180 million tracks were downloaded in the first half of 2005, more than triple the downloads of 57 million for first half of 2004. The said the illegal file-sharing remained static and that infringing files on file-sharing networks only climbed by 3%
They credited the surge of broadband lines with the surge of legal downloads. They claimed broadband lines grew four times faster at 13%. The IFPI said single track downloads tripled in the top four online markets in 2005 over the previous year as well.
Putting this in perspective, legal downloads in the first half 2005 at 180 million in the U.S., the U.K. Germany and France rolled over the entire year’s legal downloads in 2004 at 157 million legal tracks.
John Kennedy, IFPI Chairman and CEO said: “We are now seeing real evidence that people are increasingly put off by illegal file-sharing and turning to legal ways of enjoying music online. Whether it’s the fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realisation that many networks could damage your home PC, attitudes are changing, and that is good news for the whole music industry.
While illegal file sharing continues despite legal actions in the way of fines and even full-blown raids in some cases, more and more people continue to take up the legal way of getting their music. While many may chalk this up to fear of legal action, one might chalk it up to something else.
Up until fairly recently solid methods for downloading songs haven’t been widespread. With the advent of iTunes and other downloadable service like RealNetworks or Yahoo’s music service, a marketplace with multiple venues has been provided for individuals to go and get the music they want. Combine that with a real proliferation of players like iPod or Sony’s Walkman and then you get people just wanting to follow the law and pay for what they want.
Certainly people will always find new ways to circumvent the rules, they always do but most people do want to follow the rules and that’s is what’s beginning to show up.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
