Anonymous

UK

IAD

Its been a while, but I used to download tracks, sometimes whole albums, to have a listen to a new artist before going and spending my hard earned money on a CD that could potentially end up as a coffee cup mat.

I know its not legal, but its how I bought a lot of CDs in the recent past. I suspect that some of the record companies have made more money out of me (and other people like me) from this kind of practice than they would have without "file sharing".

Why do I go out and buy the CDs when I already have the whole album? Because the quality of the mp3s available via file sharing is generally appalling. I like to look at the cd sleeves and I can't play MP3s in my car. ;)

Why have I stopped downloading music? Well, basically because most peering software and the computers that use it are rife with viruses, spyware, ad-ware etc. I think that now that broadband is becoming more available in the UK and people are beginning (slowly) to learn about the dangers of the internet, peering software will be used less and less.

I think that percentage of people with completely legitimate tracks or only one or two ripped tracks is going to steadily increase and I don't think it will be because of things like iTunes.
You are never going to get 100%, but 45% is a fair start. I wonder what the percentage of people who copy albums to tape is/was.

I think Anon from Scotland's point was how many would not respond to a survey because of the number of illegal mp3s they have, even if the survey was anonymous. People are suspicious and on the internet nothing is entirely anonymous.

btw - your stats add up to 105% ;)