Weekly news magazine Newsweek’s September 22nd issue (on newsstands today) features a number of articles in its Business and Money section concerning online music downloading, piracy and related issues.
According to the results of a recent Newsweek poll, the publication has concluded that if all music CD prices were reduced by one-third, 48 percent of music consumers with the ability to download music online would prefer to buy CDs. This could be good news for music giant Universal Music Group, which earlier this month announced plans to reduce the price of its top-tier titles.
Apple’s iTunes Music Store offers singles for US$0.99; 25 percent of those polled said that they’re willing to pay that price. There’s certainly room to negotiate, however — another 25 percent of those polled put their preferred price at 50 cents or less per song. Another 10 percent of those polled indicated that they’re not willing to pay anything for downloaded music, however.
The RIAA’s recent moves to sue consumers who have downloaded large amounts of commercial music appear to be having an effect on people’s downloading habits, also — 54 percent of those polled said they’d be less likely to download music in the future.