NPD Group: consumers deleting music files from PC hard drives

In August 1.4 million households deleted all the digital music files saved on their PC hard drives. Prior to August, deletions were at much lower levels. For example in May of 2003, when NPD first began to track music file deletions, 606,000 households deleted all digital music files from their PCs. Eighty percent of the consumers who deleted files had fewer than 50 files saved; just 10 percent had more than 200 files.

"So far the RIAA's litigation has focused on users with the largest numbers of files to be shared, but it appears that the lawsuits are also having an effect on those with fewer files, indicating that the message that file sharing is illegal is getting through to mainstream consumers," said Russ Crupnick, vice president of The NPD Group. "There are many reasons why consumers would delete files -- from hardware changes to burning their music inventory to CD -- but this massive jump in deletions is clearly a reaction to the new environment for pirated music."

Another illustration of how the RIAA's lawsuits are having their desired effect on consumer music file-sharing activity is exemplified by a continued decrease in file-sharing overall. According to The NPD Group, the number of households acquiring digital music via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services declined by 11 percent from August to September. During that same time period, the total number of music files downloaded decreased 9 percent.

"While some in the music industry expected a large jump in digital file acquisition as the summer ended when students returned to school, the latest consumer information from NPD belies this expectation," Crupnick said. "It's apparent that the music industry's strategy continues to work in the ongoing battle against illegal music file sharing; however, those same tactics also appear to negatively affect the perceptions of the recording industry among consumers."

"The music industry's success in reducing file-sharing activity has been impressive, but now the real work of winning back the hearts and minds of consumers must begin," Crupnick said. "To capitalize on this success, the industry must re-double efforts to educate the file-sharing public about how illegal file sharing affects not just the industry's bottom line, but also the artists themselves and the ability of the industry to continue to offer a wide range of new music to consumers. New legal ways to purchase digital music on the Web can work hand-in-glove with these education efforts and help to improve the public's perception of the music industry."