Video and Software Downloads Overtaking Music

Trigun writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that movie and software downloads have outpaced music downloads. Music accounted for 48.6 percent of files shared online, compared with 62.5 percent in 2002, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The article says that 1 in 4 internet users have downloaded at least one movie, and attributes the proliferation to access to broadband. Maybe we've just downloaded all the good music already?"

Blame ' pirates '

[nurb432]

That way we can have more restrictive legislation.

Same old story

[Anonymous Coward]

Just another round of MP/RI-AA trying to make the money they're used to. Trying to push for government regulation, infringing on our rights as citizens.

All empires crumble, why won't they accept it?

Maybe if by size...

[Xshare]

Are they counting by size of file? Or maybe they are including all the .r00, .r01, .r02 files as SEPERATE files, but I don't see this as completely right.

MPAA not exactly impartial

[NachoDaddy]

A separate global study published Thursday by the Motion Pictures Association found that about one in four Internet users had already downloaded a movie. Most said they would pirate more if they took less time to download.

The problem is right there.

Sales down because of bad customers or bad music?

[mroch]

In my opinion, if CD sales are in fact down (hard to tell), it's due to the lack of good music rather than file sharing. I don't buy CDs anymore, but that's not because I can download everything. It's because everything out now sucks. Like the post said, maybe we have all the good music already... If the record companies spent their money making really good music like they used to, rather than their new tactic of suing their customers, I'm sure CD sales would go back up.

Music down by volume or percentage?

[DdJ]

Is music swapping down by actual volume, or just by percentage? That is, are people swapping less music, or did video/software swapping just grow faster than music swapping did?

If music swapping is actually down, could it be because there are viable legit music download services now? I know I've bought multiple albums from both iTMS and Audi Lunchbox myself...

Re:Surprise, surprise...

[Mind Booster Noori]

What the RIAA is doing is having a chilling effect on online music trading, like it or not.

Of course is having: lot's of people (including me) are buying LESS CD's because some of them are with copy protections that doesn't let people play them on their CD players.

Wow, nice move.

Re:Global coverage

[WatertonMan]

I honestly wonder how they calculate this? I daresay that the majority of people using P2P networks share their music shares which probably are around 1000 files or more. I just have a hard time seeing that most are sharing that many movies and pieces of software. i.e. those sharing movies almost certainly are also sharing songs.

What I suspect they did is just scanned for not music files. They then end up with all these small files - sometimes the content of you system directory - that dumbnits share or people trying to get a certain GB shared limit share. Yet if they count each .ini file and other such thing as a different software file, of course the number of files will outnumber music. But is that a real accurate count of movies and software shared?

i.e. shouldn't they count software packages and movies shared rather than *files* shared?

Perhaps they aren't making this mistake. But given their statistics something just smells fishy. I'd like to see their methadology.

1 in 4 internet users?

[PineHall]

Maybe I am not in the know, but I don't know a single person that has downloaded a movie. And considering the majority of Americans have dialup, I find this hard to believe. (I can't say about other countries, but I suspect for most countries that holds true.) It would take a long time on dialup to download a movie. It just does not make sense.

I wonder..

[RyLaN]

I wonder if they're measuring traffic from Debian's apt mirrors, RedHat's up2date, Gentoo's emerge... I know that just between the 4 Debian systems I run there can be anywhere from 100-300 megabytes of updates per week. Granted, one is stable, two are testing and one is unstable. But still, I can't think of a week that I've *ever* downloaded 300 megs of music. Most software packages are much, much larger than even an entire album, so this doesn't surprise me at all.

Re:Surprise, surprise...

[PhoenixFlare]

"What the RIAA is doing is having a chilling effect on online music trading, like it or not. I don't think the MPAA will have any recourse but to pursue the same tactics, but with much larger penalties."

Only partially correct. I believe it is having a chilling effect (maybe) on trading of music produced by RIAA members or that would otherwise get you in trouble with the RIAA if caught.

Conversely, in some areas, such as ( to use a rather geeky example ) anime and video game soundtracks, music is easily found with a bit of work and people are more than willing to share vast quantities.

Seattle? who do we know there?

[rbird76]

I wouldn't doubt that there is illegal uploading/downloading going on, but I'd have a hard time trust any of the **AAs as unbiased sources...

While the SPI has a good reputation (I think) I can help but wonder if this article might have something to do with a little software company in Washington who has a deep and abiding interest in software- and hardware-based DRM schemes. Hyping the threat to companies from "software terrorists" is a prerequisite for the kind of digital rights infringement that Microsoft and other want to sell the public and content providers.

This doesn't mean that copying isn't happening, just that someone nearby has an incentive to make the problem appear larger than it is.

Isn't that entrapment?

[IcEMaN252]

it wouldn't take the MPAA more than 30 seconds to start another one and start nabbing people IN THE ACT

If a copyright holder provides a service to make it easy for you to download their content, wouldn't they be implictly condoning it? Thus, it wouldn't be piracy.

It's not illegal to download a file, or swap it amongst people. It's only illegal if you don't have permission to do it..

legal mp3 downloads vs P2P

[kiwipeso]

Well what about places like new zealand where the legal places don't do good music like the pixies Bam Thwok ?
I had to get that by Limewire P2P because iTMS isn't coming here for years.

The OECD is tracking pop music...HUH?

[Simonetta]

I have a seriously difficult time believing the numbers generated by the OECD on the subject of western young people's downloading pop music and comic book movies.

These people are serious stuffed shirt economists. I don't think that they have the methodogy or the skills to track the semi-legit world of P2P and the various secretive subcultures asssociated with warez and big time file sharing. I suspect that they are simply repeating highly questionable numbers obtained from dubious sources that have clear political agendas (the RIAA, anyone?)
You wouldn't smoke pot from any of these guys in the OCED, why trust their analysis of P2P usage? I suspect that this is just another example of economists getting bad data from journalists who got numbers from secret sources (the RIAA) who just pulled them out of their ass to get laws passed to make themselves rich.
The OCED should stick to what they do best and tracking the P2P/warez underground is not it.

Re:Global coverage

[ioslipstream]

the last ten years of music have been great, provided of course, you don't consider what they play on the radio, music.

Re:Child care

[jred]

One of our local theaters has a playroom [muvico.com] for just that reason. Now, *I* wouldn't leave my kid with some strangers, but they *do* offer the service.

Re:legal mp3 downloads vs P2P

[1arkhaine]

He didn't *Have* to, but I can understand where he is coming from. As an Australian, I have *no way* of getting the Pixies latest song, other than by illegal downloading. While I haven't done so, there is hardly any reason for me not to now, is there?

Re:Isn't that entrapment?

[i23098]

However, by joining a .torrent, the MPAA would be simultaneously distributing the file themselves, thereby given implicit permission to copy (in fact, they would be facilitating the copying). Moreover, I suspect the terms of use for most torrent site registrations require you to consent to the activities there.
You mean that DEA can't infiltrate with drug dealers, sell/buy some drugs to catch the dealers? It's the same MPAA can infiltrate, maybe help a little just for not being recognized and identify who is sharing...