Teens Will Download More Music As Connection Speeds Improve.

The Yankee Group reported that music downloading by teens, a major revenue-loss and copyright issue for music artists, producers, and distributors, will increase dramatically as broadband penetration increases. According to its recently released 2003 Youth Market Survey, 30 percent of teen respondents not currently downloading music stated that connection speed was a major reason, while only 20 percent of teens stated that illegality was a reason they did not currently download.

“Broadband Internet access via DSL and cable, now present in nearly 20 million U.S. homes, is rapidly gaining ground on dial-up,“ says Tom Gramaglia, Director of Internet, Media, and Consumer Communications for the Yankee Group. “Our recent survey suggests that peer-to-peer file sharing, using software programs such as KaZaa and Morpheus, will increase substantially as the “speed barrier” diminishes. This is mixed news for the new online music firms such as the iTunes Music Store. Their market opportunity will certainly benefit as broadband penetration overtakes dial-up within the next 5 years, but competition with free services also will increase.”

For more information at http://www.yankeegroup.com