Hypothesis answers.

How has digital technology changed how people listen to and download music?
Sixty seven per cent of the UK online population has tried some sort of digital activity, for example reading blogs. downloading music or podcasts. Over half have downloaded music and 8 per cent have downloaded a podcast. Fifty four per cent of the online population downloads music (32.6m) and 43 per cent of online population owns an iPod or MP3 player. Forrester Research told us this week that one in seven Europeans downloads music and that more than 40% of frequent downloaders confess to buying less music as a result.

Is using limewire or P2P filesharing actually illegal? and what effect is it having on conventional and internet music stores?
A Spanish judge has dealt a blow to the global music industry after ruling that there is nothing illegal about downloading music for free from the internet as long as it is for personal use.
Music industry could reap benefits of free downloads from the netThe internet music "pirating" technology, Napster, could give a boost to the record industry, a web conference in Glasgow heard yesterday. over the last week it has emerged that online music sales have slumped by 25% in the third quarter of 2002 compared with a year earlier. We already know that total US retail music sales have dropped by 7%.

What are internet stores doing to combat P2P filesharing?
The music industry is adapting to evolving consumption models and signing content deals often based on a cut of advertising. Record company EMI are dropping their DRM protection this will allow itunes to place higher quality versions of EMI recorded tracks. Other ideas have included yet-to-be-launched "legal" P2P networks (ie users will be able to swap DRM-encoded tracks).

How has the i-pod changed the face of listening to and downloading music?
the lateset ipod holds up to 20,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos and up to 100 hours of video — or any combination of each. So you can browse music videos on the iTunes Store, download the ones you want, then sync them to your iPod. this means people can carry more music than ever around in there pocket and can therefore access this media wherever and whenever they choose to do so.


What effect have sites such as myspace and bebo had on the music industry?
MySpace's music section has helped many amateur bands progress. One illustrative example is English band Arctic monkeys, who owe some of their success to the publicity that MySpace generated for them. Other artists that have become succesful through myspace include Lily Allen and Sandi Thom. However recently there has been a case of reading the small print in which myspace said "you hereby grant to MySpace.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services". this resulted in Billy Bragg removing all of his songs from the site. Now, however, myspace has changed the small print and claims no royalties on any artists music.