P2P Music Downloads At All-Time Low 369
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)."
Correction (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a decline in music downloads that NPD Group is able to track.
Think about that one for a second.
Re:How about the fact.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have to disagree about "modern music" being crap.
The difference is that in the past, good bands got the spotlight and were heavily promoted.
These days, what gets the promotion dollars are cookie cutter bands who wouldn't even be able to croak out anything near a melody if it wasn't for Antares's Auto-Tune product. Why do they get promoed? Because it is cheaper to hype some naiive and malleable stars for a few years, then find some new meat when the news stories about their rehab and DUI misadventures hit the press.
There is still good music being made. However, you won't be finding it on the radio (unless you happen to have an independent station). It will be through services like Pandora, last.fm, and other places, not to mention Web forums and word of mouth that one finds bands that don't suck.
Trust me; there are a lot of new bands that are worth the ear; they just don't have the huge money behind them that Justin Beiber and Ke$ha do.
Re:How about the fact.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Right now? Mainstream music has utterly sucked since the late 90s. If you want some quality music over P2P, check out bt.etree.org.
Personally, my downloading is at an all time low because I have everything I want. I pass up free leech at the private trackers I'm on, simply because I wouldn't have the time to use it anyway.
Re:I smell RIAA trolls today... (Score:3, Interesting)
I just use iTunes, honestly. Sure, the quality isn't as good as it absolutely could be, but it's leaps and bounds beyond the average mp3 I used to find in crappy malware infested software like Limewire. I've been buying all my music from there over the last few years. Early on the DRM was bothersome (especially when I wanted to listen to my music on my Linux box, though it's easy enough to get around that) but now they've removed that. I get the idea that pirating is "better" because it's free, but at this point in my life I'm willing to spend money on the things that I enjoy, especially when I look at it as an investment
1. Find music I like
2. Support the artist by buying their music
3. Artist makes money, has the means to create more music
4. ???
5. Profit! (Enjoy more music from the artists I like)
Why is it then that I'm looked at like an extra-terrestrial being when I tell people I pay for things?
Sure, not ALL of the money goes to the artists, but that's not within my control. Paying for the music gets the artist a piece of the pie while pirating gives them nothing.
Eventually, artists will smarten up and start selling their own music (see: Radiohead) off of their own websites and get even bigger pieces of the pie.