While 80 percent of U.S. music listeners think free music downloading is stealing, 92 percent say they never do it, and only a third believe illegal downloading and copying of music is the cause of a decline in music sales over the last five years, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey conducted on behalf of the Associated Press and Rolling Stone.
Seventy-four percent of those asked said that CDs are too expensive, and 58 percent said music in general is "getting worse." The view that the music industry is more to blame for its own woes than consumers was also reflected in the survey, when 63 percent attributed the decline in music sales over the past five years to competition from other media, a decline in new music quality, or because CDs are too expensive, compared with 33 percent who said the decline is due to people making illegal copies of music.
The survey also found that 15 percent said they had paid to download a song from a paid service like iTunes, or downloaded a free promotional song, while 85 percent reported never having downloaded a song at all. The poll of 1,000 U.S. residents conducted Jan. 23-25 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
Seventy-four percent of those asked said that CDs are too expensive, and 58 percent said music in general is "getting worse." The view that the music industry is more to blame for its own woes than consumers was also reflected in the survey, when 63 percent attributed the decline in music sales over the past five years to competition from other media, a decline in new music quality, or because CDs are too expensive, compared with 33 percent who said the decline is due to people making illegal copies of music.
The survey also found that 15 percent said they had paid to download a song from a paid service like iTunes, or downloaded a free promotional song, while 85 percent reported never having downloaded a song at all. The poll of 1,000 U.S. residents conducted Jan. 23-25 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.