UK youths ‘hoard stolen music’
Nine out of 10 British students own an MP3 player but half of all the tracks stored on them have not been paid for, according to a music rights group.
The study carried out by the University Of Hertfordshire earlier this year for British Music Rights, which works on behalf of musicians, composers and publishers, looked at the music consumption of 14-24-year-olds in the UK.
The research revealed that 58 per cent of respondents had copied music from a friend’s hard disk to their own.
A total of 95 per cent admitted to copying music in some way, either through peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks (63 per cent) or by allowing P2P users to upload music to their computer (42 per cent).
Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of British Music Rights, said: “First and foremost, it is quite clear that this young and tech-savvy demographic is as crazy about and engaged with music as any previous generation.”
The ex-Undertones frontman said that the study showed that young people are prepared to pay for music. “That message comes through loud and clear,” he added.
