More Studies Show Young Not Learning To Pay For Music

A new Jupiter Research study warns that the European music industry is losing the crucial 15-24 music buying demographic.  Illegal downloads on P2P networks are three times the volume of downloads on paid services. Overall only 5 percent of internet consumers pay for downloads and 15 percent are share but do not pay. Among youth 15-24 the results are far worse with 34 percent favoring illegal downloads.  The study questions if the trend could be fueled by restricted credit card access the young; a gap which pre-paid cards from Napster and Apple are attempting fill. The report did point to a solid group of consumers willing to pay for music principally on iTunes.

Analyst Mark Mulligan warned that younger buyers "may never develop music purchasing behavior, predicting a serious long term problem for music companies. In the US a recent NPD study reported here ranked iTunes among the top 10 music retailers in the US though per user purchases and full album downloads continue to be low. Other research seems to buttress the Jupiter Research findings. BigChampagne for example has shown very strong increases in global file-sharing volume over the past few years.