A report has been released by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at Swinburne University’s Institute for Social Research which, surprise, surprise, finds that Australians are rather fond of downloading music for free off file sharing sites.
Professor Julian Thomas, the academic who co-ordinated the study as part of the world internet project (WIP) said that the study found that 27.8% of Australia’s Internet users obtained music from illicit sites, a rise from the 23.6% documented in an earlier, 2007 study. The new study found 12.2% downloaded music on a weekly basis, down a little from 12.2% in 2007. The study which conducts 1000 interviews with internet users also found that people who downloaded music illegally tended to buy less music.
It’s not all bad for the music business, however, as the report found that from 2007 to 2009, the proportion of users who usually bought their music online doubled, increasing to 19.3% from 8.1%.
