New Poll Says High Prices And Lousy Music Reasons For Sales Slump; Not Downloading

A new poll points to high prices and lousy music far more than illegal downloading as the reason for the continuing decline in CD sales.

80% of the poll’s respondents consider it stealing to download music for free and 92% claim they’ve never done, it according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press and Rolling Stone. On the other hand 75% of fans say CD’s are too expensive, and 58%  believe that the new music for sale is getting worse.  "Less talented people are able to get a song out there and make a quick million and you never hear from them again," Kate Simkins, 30, of Cape Cod, Mass told the Washington Post.

Polling company Ipsos’ telephone poll of 1,000 adults (including 963 music listeners) was conducted Jan. 23-25 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.

Only 15 percent of poll respondents said they’ve downloaded music from one of the legal service, but a  full 71% of all music fans believe that 99 cents is either a fair price or a bargain.  But "…buying a CD for about $20 is no bargain", writes the Washington Post about the poll results. "They’d rather download one or two favorite songs to their iPods….Many fans also say they just don’t like what they’re hearing. It may not be surprising to hear older fans say music just isn’t what it used to be…But the poll also found that 49% of music fans ages 18-to-34 the target audience for the music business say music is getting worse…"

"…Overall, music fans were split on why music sales have been..33% said it was because of illegal downloads, 29% said it was because of competition from other forms of entertainment, 21% blamed it on the quality of music getting worse and 13% said it was because CD’s are too expensive…".

"FM radio is still the main way most fans find out about new music, according to the poll. Television  shows are a distant second…"

Read more from the Washington Post story here.