Research on digital copying 2007

Young people listen to music mostly at home via their computer. Copyright protected works such as music, movies and TV are most often copied to the computer and to mp3 players. Copying music into mobile phones is also common. Music is also often copied into more than one device.

In the fall of 2007 Teosto commissioned a survey that mapped private copying in the digital environment. The survey studied in what new ways media devices are used as these new ways are becoming more and more socially significant. The aim of the survey was to discover the extent in which digital content is stored to various devices and to explore the new ways digital content is consumed. The focus was on mobile phones and external hard disks.

The results are based on two web surveys. The first survey consisted of a random sample of IRC-Gallery users mainly aged between 12 and 25 who store and use music or video content. IRC-Gallery is a Finnish social media website.

The second survey concentrated on users of mobile phones or external hard disks. Digium, an online marketing and research company, recruited the respondents for this group from their research panel.

With these two separate surveys the age and genders distribution of the respondents was quite comprehensive. Both surveys had some 1,000 respondents; all in all more than 2,000 people answered the surveys.

Music is most often copied from Internet

The results from the survey on IRC-Gallery confirm that new devices have radically changed the ways people listen to music. The computer is the new entertainment center of the home. Approximately half of the respondents (46%) stated that during one week they copy music at least a few times or even more often. Internet (54%) or a published CD or DVD (27%) are the most common sources of copied music. Almost half of the respondents copied TV programs or movies a few times a month and 19% a few times a week.

The fact that music is simultaneously copied on more than one device was one of the key findings of the two surveys. Users want to be able to use content flexibly and do not want limit to their use of content to a certain place. Read more >>>