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)."

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).

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:Give me good services

[mlts]

Only downside is that Spotify isn't available in the US. Yes, you can proxy, but it takes gymnastics to get it working on your Android or iPhone, especially if you want a subscription.

The only analog of that in the US would be Rhapsody and the Zune Marketplace. After my effort in trying to cancel Rhapsody service (when URGE [1] moved to them), I would hesitate on recommending them.

[1]: MTV/Microsoft's URGE was one of the best subscription music services, although it had a relatively brief lifespan. It actually had decent band articles, showcased new bands and was good at recommending new bands.

Re:Give me good services

[Stregano]

You know you can go to mp3.com of Amazon or somewhere like that and get very good quality mp3's that you can purchase, right?

Still miss one feature

[clickclickdrone]

Back in the day pre torrents etc, the best thing for me was searching for a track then being able to browse that person's hard disk for their other shared tracks. I used to find all manner of cool stuff I never knew existed or artists I'd never heard of. I'd *never* have bought them via iTunes or whatever because I simply didn't know they were there. This happened a lot with people from other countries who typically had their local bands mixed in there that you'd never find in your own country. I've lost count of the amount of albums/tracks I've bought because of that ability to dig around. Sure, some sites try and offer 'if you liked this, what about that?' but it rarely produces anything of note and misses out completely on stuff that's way outside your normal listening area. These days, most of my 'discovering' is done via obscure podcasts but it's not very efficient.

Re:Give me good services

[poetmatt]

pandora works in the us. Paid version $36 a year, unlimited listening, basically it's spotify. Outside the US, use spotify. Problem solved.

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..