People who download music illegally also spend an average of £77 a year buying it legitimately, a survey has found.

Those who claimed not to use peer-to-peer filesharing sites such as The Pirate Bay spent a yearly average of just £44.

Almost one in 10 of those questioned aged between 16 and 50 said they downloaded music illegally.

However, eight out of 10 of that group also bought CDs, vinyl and as MP3s.

A total of 1008 people in the UK took part in the online poll commissioned by researchers Demos.

Half the group (50%) accessed music officially via YouTube, and 22% listened to internet radio.

Napster, once a pioneer of music filesharing, was used by just 4%, with 21% saying they had not heard of it.

Music streaming service Spotify was used by 9% of the group, most of whom had not signed up for the paid-for premium service.

However, it was rated highly for being easy to use, convenient and providing access to a wide variety of music.

Right price

75% of 16-24 year olds said they were prepared to pay for MP3s. The optimum price for the survey group as a whole was 45 pence for an individual track, with just 2% saying they would pay more than £1.

Current chart topper Fight for this Love by Cheryl Cole is priced at 99 pence on iTunes in the UK, and 79 pence on Amazon.

"Politicians and music companies need to recognise that the nature of music consumption has changed and consumers are demanding lower prices and easier access to music," said Demos researcher Peter Bradwell.

It also raises questions about the draft Digital Economy bill, which is due to be submitted to parliament later this month and proposes disconnecting file-sharers who repeatedly break the law.

"The scale of unlawful file-sharing poses a real threat to the long-term sustainability of our creative industries," said a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

"While surveys asking people about unlawful behaviour should be treated with caution, it's encouraging that the findings signal that the three-pronged approach set out by the Government this week - a mix of education, enforcement and attractive new commercial deals - provides the best way forward for industry and consumers."

That doesn't make any sense. Why would they buy it when they know they can get it for free?

That doesn't make any sense. Why would they buy it when they know they can get it for free?

Because they like it and want to support the artist?

Because they like it and want to support the artist?

How do you get it to share it for free ?

let's remember this is correlation rather than causation. All you can definitively show from it is that the group that downloads music illegally tends to like music more than the group who doesn't.

Either way, it flies in the face of the prevailing argument against piracy.

only if we assume that the people downloading music are buying as much or more music as they would be without the illegal downloads. Which we can't really prove one way or the other.

Almost one in 10 of those questioned aged between 16 and 50 said they downloaded music illegally.

Really? Just one in ten?

I refer to this thread just to show that CN users are quite a bit more honest about their filesharing activities.

I think the fact that they buy more than the average person is what's indicative here, and ironic. They like music more, is what we can draw from this I think. They may and probably do download more than they buy but they buy more than the average person. Thus, even then they still support the artists more. And the main argument against downloading is that it is stealing from the artists and hurting their business. Lo and behold, the opposite holds true for the downloaders.

There is an argument to be made that file-sharing can help advertise music and aid the industry that way, but just because the people who are downloading free music also buy more music than average doesn't mean that the music industry isn't losing money to filesharing.

It also doesn't mean that the music industry is. The real question that should have been asked should have been along the lines of "If you download music illegally, why do you still purchase music legally" and then see what the most common responses were.

Yes, but I wasn't making a positive claim. I was pointing out that this study doesn't actually say what a lot of people are trying to claim it does.

I think the fact that they buy more than the average person is what's indicative here, and ironic. They like music more, is what we can draw from this I think. They may and probably do download more than they buy but they buy more than the average person. Thus, even then they still support the artists more. And the main argument against downloading is that it is stealing from the artists and hurting their business. Lo and behold, the opposite holds true for the downloaders.

but it only shows that they listen to more music, not that filesharing is what led them to do so. Unless more evidence is presented, someone could quite easily argue that if they didn't fileshare they would buy even more (namely, they would buy the music they illegally downloaded).

(also note, I'm playing devil's advocate here. I actually do think filesharing is good for music, I just don't think that this survey is particularly compelling evidence)

That's a good point. I wonder how we'd go about proving this.

That's a good point. I wonder how we'd go about proving this.