Bit of a long post title but this is the feedback from research conducted in June on consumer behaviour and preferences in respect of music downloading.  The research was commissioned by music site We7 and conducted on 2012 consumers aged 16 to 60 over 7 days in June 2009.

Its key findings make very interesting reading:

• 46% of UK music fans do not understand how to legally consume music online
• 64% do not know how to stream and share music legally
• 85% of consumers are happy to listen to a short ad in exchange for unlimited access to free music that they can share with others
• 94% say they would choose a legal music site over a pirate one if it had the same range of music and was easy to use
• Women and those over 55 are least likely to stream – 85% say they don’t know how and are unlikely to try
  64% of 16-24 year olds share music with friends online and 71% know what streaming is but only 48% have ever tried it
• Londoners and Bristolians are the biggest sharers of music online but only 39% and 46% respectively have ever streamed music. 
• The majority of music buyers (78%) would buy the same or more music if they could listen to streamed music too, showing that the We7 model compliments the industry rather than cannibalises it

All this reinforces the ISP industry’s position that what we need is more legal ways for consumers to easily access music online.  7  million consumers can’t be criminals.  We7 is doing a great job pioneering this so thanks goes to Steve Purdham, and his team. 

Tonight I’m going to go home and listen to some free and legal music streaming online. Frank Sinatra methinks.