eConsultant

File Swappers Find New Ways to Trade Tunes

As more and more iPods and hard disk devices are sold, people will trade with those - just like people used to lend/borrow CDs and make mix tapes for others. This should not come as a surprise.

PCWorld.com - File Swappers Find New Ways to Trade Tunes

File Swappers Find New Ways to Trade Tunes

E-mail, IM, and even IPods are becoming popular alternatives to peer-to-peer networks.

Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
Friday, March 25, 2005

Recording industry lawsuits against file swappers and P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software companies may be forcing Internet users onto informal networks to exchange songs and videos, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

A Pew survey of 1421 U.S. adult Internet users found that informal file-sharing networks are used by 19 percent of music and video downloaders, with MP3 players, e-mail, and instant messaging products popular mediums for transferring files between friends and family. The results of the survey suggest that legal action by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and others is shifting file swapping to other online avenues, even as file-sharing activity recovers from recent declines, Pew says.

Around 27 percent of Internet users surveyed by Pew said they downloaded either music or video files over the Internet, and 48 percent of all those who downloaded said they use sources other than P-to-P networks or premium online services, such as Apple Computer's ITunes, to get music or video files. Pew estimates that about 18 million Americans are swapping files using nontraditional means based on the survey results.

Surprising Findings

Approximately 19 percent of the adult Internet users in the survey admitted to downloading files using an MP3 player, such as an Apple IPod. That translates into about 7 million adults, and is surprising, because products like the IPod are not designed to support file sharing between devices, says Mary Madden, a research specialist at Pew who wrote the report ....

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