(CelebrityAccess News Service) — A major survey compiled from 200 music business professionals at all levels who responded to a set of 30 questions on their use of music technology, purchases of CDs and online music, downloading &CD burning habits as well as the need for legislation changes to better serve music consumers has just been released with surprising results. The survey, titled "Music–The Business, Law &Technology Report" was taken at the 6th AustralAsian Music Business Conference August 14-16 and the results compiled by IMMEDIA!–leading music industry service company and publisher of the AustralAsian Music Industry Directory.
Of the 200 professionals responding who anonymously answered the questions on the paper survey–from 600 attendees of the three day music industry conference–42% were musicians or songwriters, 16% were artist or band managers, 14% music business students, 6% record company staff, 6% music media, with 14% falling in the other category including music publishers, agents, lawyers, producers, engineers and copyright association staff.
Some sample results from music professionals' technology use include:
1–Of the 76% who play music through their computers-47% listen to CDs, 19% to MP3s, 10% via streaming media websites including online radio and 24% listen to all the above.
2–77% have a CD burner, 11% use someone else's and only 5% have never used one.
3–Even though it's illegal in Australia, 48% burn music from their own purchased CDs, 21% from borrowed CDs, 6% from downloaded songs while 25% burn CDs from all the above.
4–In the past year, 47% burned fewer than 5 CDs, 25% 5-10 CDs, 14% 10-20 CDs, 7% 20-50 CDs, 3% 50-100 CDs &4% of music professionals burned more than 100 or more a year.
5–Of 45% who download music, 50% take free music only, 18% pay for it, 31% do both.
Purchasing of CDs and music/DVD/vinyl ownership habits were also polled:
1–25 % purchased 10-20 CDs this year, 24% 0-5 CDs, 21% 20-50 CDs &4% over 100 CDs.
2–Only 14% had purchased CDs online this year. Top sites are Chaos, Amazon &HMV.
3–CD ownership was high-32% had 200-500CDs, 24% 100-200CDs, 16% owned 50-100 while 8% had collected 500-1000 and 8% admitted to owning more than 1000 CDs.
4–DVD ownership is not as high-32% had 0-5 DVDs, 25% had 10-20 &only 6% had 50+.
–Vinyl owners numbers 68% and 24% of those had 100-500LPs, 26% less than 20 LPs.
6–Surprising result-21% sample music via P2P before buying, 33% do not.Ý
But the attitudes of music industry pros toward CD burning, file sharing and copying your own music CD elicited a response that ARIA &record companies probably don't want to hear. It's time to change the law to allow consumers to copy their own music they say!
1. 55% considered it an inequity that it's against the law to make a copy of your own bought CDs, make a personal use compilation (CD or tape) or copying them to a digital device.
2. A whopping 81% believe the Copyright Act should be changed to allow personal copying of purchased CDs (but not other peoples borrowed or downloaded music).
3. 57% considered burning CDs stealing from artists, 29% from labels and 14% did not.
4. 48% regarded downloading free music theft from artists, 25% from labels, 27% did not.
5. Yet 54% admitted they illegally copied computer software. 26% copied games illegally.
–Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen
