Music Matters - music piracy fact sheet

In research that explores music habits and attitudes among young urban Asians, Synovate surveyed 3,857 respondents aged 15 to 34 years in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Synovate Director Media Research Asia Pacific, Craig Harvey said with the proliferation of digital technologies, music piracy continued to pose a challenge to music industry organisations in Asia.

“The Music Matters survey shows that one quarter of urban Asian consumers surveyed have downloaded and saved a song from the internet without paying for it in the past month, and 18% have used a file-sharing program to share music with others,” he said.

“Consumers also appear to underestimate the extent of the piracy problem, with 47% of respondents surveyed believing that the music industry is doing a good job at protecting the intellectual property of artists.”

However, Mr Harvey noted that it was not all bad news, with online music also providing new opportunities for the industry in Asia.

“On a more positive note, of the relatively healthy 14% of consumers surveyed who had paid to download music from the internet over the past month, only one fifth of these (21%) had also purchased music in a physical store, showing that the web is opening up a whole new market of music consumers across Asia,” Mr Harvey added.

About music piracy

In the past month, of the young urban consumers surveyed regionally:

• 31% swapped or borrowed a music CD or mini-disc from a friend
• 34% purchased music in a physical store
• 25% downloaded and saved a song from the internet without paying for it
• 19% ripped or copied music from a CD
• 19% burned or copied music onto a CD or DVD
• 19% purchased a bootleg or counterfeit music CD
• 18% used a file sharing program to share music with others
• 14% paid to download music online
• 9% purchased a CD or mini-disc online