P2P Music Downloads At All-Time Low

RedEaredSlider writes "According to research group NPD Group, the shuttering of Limewire's music file sharing service has led to a similar decline in the usage of such services throughout the US. The number has gone from a high of 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to just nine percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, right after Limewire shut down its file-sharing services due to a court order, when a federal judge sided with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)."

Comments

Give me good services

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people I know stopped downloading music after Spotify came a few years ago. It's an awesome service, and I gladly pay the monthly fee for it. Others take the ad supported version. But all in all, it did wonders to stop piracy.

The same can be said about Steam. I currently own over 250 games on Steam and I gladly buy more, as it's easy, fast and just works. Yeah yeah, Steam might go down in 500 years, but you know what, I don't care. It's great for me now and I probably won't be playing those games then, if they even work with that generations systems. And if I really want to play some classic again, there will always be (and even increasingly) services similar to Good Old Games and console stores that sell old games cheaply and modified to work with current systems.

Those two services have come to a point where it's easier and better to buy than pirate. Now just give me the same for movies and TV and I'm set. And I wont be making any stupid comments about how music labels are ripping off hard working artists (while forgetting the artists signed that contract themself) or how some item you buy should still be working 1000 years from now, because frankly I don't care. I just want a good working service where I can throw my money and get the product quickly and easily.

And on a related note, I just bought Crysis 2, Portal 2 and Assassins Creed: Brotherhood from Steam. All great games (AssBro has amazingly fun multiplayer where everyone have targets to kill while also being someone elses target).

Re:Give me good services

[Reapman]

"Outside the US, use spotify"

And for those of us outside Europe AND the US (such as Canada, although I'm sure other countries are in the same boat) NEITHER option works. However GrooveShark is a pretty good substitute I find..

Crappy Music

[denshao2]

There isn't much left to download.

And...

[redemtionboy]

Music sales suddenly skyrocket right? Right?? Oh, they're still abysmal. Never mind then.

Correction

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

There is a decline in music downloads that NPD Group is able to track.

Think about that one for a second.

Was shutting down Limewire the real cause?

[Itesh]

Or are services like Pandora, Spotify, and even iTunes giving the consumers what they want at a price they want and thus helping to drive pirating down?

Thank Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about others, but since Amazon started selling unencrypted MP3s, I've stopped turning to illegal sources for music.

Re:In related news...

[Kjella]

I know, it's soooo time for a dupe. The editors have gotten really sloppy about it, nothing like in the good old days.

Re:shitty statistics

[Captain Spam]

The number has gone from a high of 16% in the fourth quarter of 2007 to just $9,000 in the fourth quarter of 2010. This has been going down at a rate of 34W per day, and it can be expected to be down to 18 acres by the end of 2011. Analysts believe, however, that new P2P technology could see that number jump back up by 12kg before settling at 64 degrees Fahrenheit.