19 July 2009 — Illegal Downloading Drops 60% in the Past Two Years
At least according to this article by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic (via A.V. Club). Apparently everyone's on Pandora these days – except those crazy people who don't live in the States.
This is obviously going to be seen as some sort of good thing by music labels, but I wonder what it says about people's listening habits in general. I know that my own are different from the typical music listener as they are described in the press: I listen to whole albums more than 90% of the time I play music for one thing; I don't own many singles relative to the size of my music library; I rarely even listen to that much music when I'm not at work or at a gig (so maybe I'm more typical of someone who isn't a music listener). So it's not a great surprise to discover that I'm behind the curve once again. I even bought a few CDs the other week.
I wonder about what benefit this trend – if it's real – has for musicians. Percentages are different for digital releases and I could only guess about what kind of deals artists have for streaming content. And I wonder if the drop of 60% in illegal downloading has been matched by a similarly large uptake in streaming services. A 60% drop in downloading seems to suggest that if you're a slightly obscure band you have less chance of being heard. Or stolen from, however you want to put it.