NEW YORK: The recording industry's legal onslaught against Internet song-swappers appears to be having its desired effect: The percentage of US residents who download music online has been sliced in half.

A report published last week indicates 14 per cent of Internet users surveyed between November 18 and December 14 said they sometimes download songs to their computers.

The report was prepared by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and comScore Media Metrix, a Web tracking firm.

The figure was 29 per cent in a May survey, and also in February 2001.

The survey did not distinguish between use of free, "peer-to-peer" music-sharing sites such as Kazaa, and licensed, commercial downloading sites such as the new Napster, MusicMatch, Rhapsody and iTunes.

However, researchers believe the plunge largely affected peer-to-peer downloading, and attributed that to the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) strategy, since September, of suing nearly 400 individual song-swappers for copyright violations.

Moreover, most of the licensed commercial sites didn't exist when previous surveys were conducted, and this study said they have attracted high numbers of users.

Most of the RIAA's cases have been settled; though the record labels can legally demand US$150,000 per song, people familiar with the cases have said most settlements have been for US$2,500 to $7,500.

Usage of Kazaa fell 15 per cent from November 2002 to November 2003, indicates comScore.

Other peer-to-peer music-sharing sites also experienced usage declines. The drop at BearShare was 9 per cent, while WinMX lost 25 per cent of its audience and Grokster plunged 59 per cent.

RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol was heartened by the Pew study, but said the lawsuits against individual users would continue in 2004.

"We will not look at any single measure and make a statement of victory," he said.

"But what we do know is this: The lawsuits have had a profound impact on awareness and fewer people are downloading (illegally), and that's good news."

The music business suffered through another down year in 2003, with overall units sold dropping 0.8 per cent, indicates Nielsen SoundScan.

CD sales fell 2 per cent. But the fourth quarter saw an overall gain of 10.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Agencies via Xinhua

(Business Weekly 01/13/2004 page1)