top formats are adult contemporary music

Downloading and 

(22.2%), gold/oldies/rock (21.5%) and

New Technologies

contemporary music (20%). In 1999,

teens strongly preferred contemporary

There has been an ongoing debate on the

music (42%), but this format has been in

impact of file sharing over P2P networks.

decline in recent years, with several stations

Many in the sound recording industry

making the switch to adult contemporary

would say that it hurts music sales, and

and golden oldies formats.

most recent surveys seem to support this

view. A survey by Pollara sponsored by

the Canadian Recording Industry

Percentage Share of Radio Listening by

Association (CRIA) found that only 35%

Format in Canada Fall 2003

of Canadian music consumers who 

Album oriented rock 2.5%

download music files are likely to have

Middle of the road 2.7%

Dance 1.8%

purchased music in the previous month,

Sports 0.9%

Easy listening

compared with 52% of music consumers

2.9%

who do not download.

34

And among

US Stations 3%

Adult 

contemporary

music consumers who said they had spent

24.2%

Other 4.4%

less on music in the past year, 28% said

Gold/oldies/rock  

downloading and CD burning were the main

Contemporary

18.6%

7.9%

reasons that their purchases had declined.

35

Country 9.7%

However, one recent study by two

American researchers found that file

Talk 10.6%

Canadian Broadcasting 

Corporation 10.9% 

sharing had no effect on CD sales. Using

Source: Statistics Canada: Radio Listening Data Bank, Fall

data from file sharing servers in the 

2003; Radio Listening data tables, July 2004, catalogue 

no. 87F0007XIE.

second half of 2002, the researchers, from

the Harvard Business School and the

University of North Carolina, found no

significant correlation between file sharing

y

habits and the large drop in US CD sales

between 2000 and 2002. They also found

that for the most popular 25% of albums,

downloading had a positive effect on sales.

36

20