78% won't pay for streaming music

10 August 2009 10:59 GMT / By Duncan Geere

A survey from umbrella-body UK Music has revealed that premium streaming services like Spotify and Napster may be in trouble. 78% of 1,808 respondents aged 14 to 24 said that they don't want to pay for a streaming music service - down from last year's 65%.

On top of that, 49% of those would would pay for unlimited streaming would continue to use P2P websites. Why? 40 percent say "to get free music", 23% say "to get rare tunes" and 22% "to try before buying". 61% of the survey's respondents admitted to filesharing - down 2% on last year.

MP3s are still popular, then, with 68% of younsters listening to music on their computer every day. Only 15% said they listened to CDs daily. The average PC contains 8,159 tracks, but the average mobile only 32. The average MP3 player contains 1,289 tracks. 89% say they still want to "own" music.

85% of P2P downloaders say that they'd pay for an all-you-can-eat MP3 download service. That'll please Virgin Media, which is launching such a service, though limited only to Universal Music artists for now.

Lastly, lending weight to commenters who claim that it's only the major labels who are doomed and that the music industry has never been in better health, 90% said that music is "essential".

Via: paidcontent.co.uk

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