Overview

A Pew Internet & American Life Project survey based on random digit-dial telephone surveys in the United States between March and August of 2000 examines music downloading behaviors and copyright concerns among adult Internet users. The main findings of the report confirm that most Internet users who download music do not pay to download, nor to they care about the copyright status of the music they access. Many downloaders are using the file-sharing services to “try before they buy,” sampling music that is new to them (31%) and also buying the music they hear online. Also the average downloader has a short playlist of about 25 songs on their computer’s hard drive.