Legal Music Downloads Catching On

A recording industry interest group said that downloads of legal digital music tripled during the first six months of 2005, while illegal file sharing only saw a small increase, raising industry hopes that consumers are turning away from P2P file-sharing services.

180 million songs were downloaded in the first half of 2005 versus 57 million during the same period in 2004, a 316 percent increase. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries credited the increase to the work of member companies to campaign against illegally downloaded music through education and prosecution as well as a 13 percent increase in broadband lines.

Also helping to spread legal downloading of music is its availability -- 300 stores are now available versus 100 last year at this time.

"We are now seeing real evidence that people are increasingly put off by illegal file-sharing and turning to legal ways of enjoying music online," said John Kennedy, the IFPI's chairman.

"Whether it's the fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realization that many networks could damage your home PC, attitudes are changing, and that is good news for the whole music industry."

However, legal downloads are only 17 percent of all music downloads. According to the IFPI, 900 million illegal tracks were downloaded in the first half of the year. There is some good news however -- illegal downloading is only up three percent.

"We are not there yet. Many still appear to be gripped by a bad habit they are finding hard to break," Kennedy said. However, he warned that the industry would continue to prosecute those it found breaking the law.

The IFPI says that 14,227 suits have been filed in 12 countries since September 2003.