2008 Woodie Awards
Students agree: music industry in need of change
Alex Schaaf
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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In last week's article, I examined how bands such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are changing the face of the music industry by dropping their labels and offering their music for free, and why this change was well overdue.
This week I'd like to take a look at the results of a survey I took of many Lawrence students. The answers were given on the promise of anonymity, so the results hopefully are as close to the truth as possible.
I asked several questions in the survey, but they mostly got to the issue of whether or not Lawrence students downloaded music illegally.
When asked how often they purchased physical CDs, 67 percent of the students said that they did so "sometimes," as opposed to the extremes of "never" or "often."
When asked how often they downloaded music from legal sources, such as iTunes, 61 percent said they did so "sometimes," again.
Finally, when asked about the amount of illegal downloading, whether it be from Limewire or torrents or something else, 42 percent of the students said that they get their music for free "sometimes."
Another 32 percent said they "never" downloaded illegally, while a quarter of the students said they "often" downloaded in this way.
According to the survey taken, only a third of the Lawrence students claim to have a music collection that is over 50 percent illegally obtained files. The rest said that most of their library was "legal."
I then surveyed students from other schools in Wisconsin, most of them coming from UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse and other such state schools; 64 percent of them said that they purchased actual CDs "sometimes."
When asked about how often they used legal downloading sources such as iTunes, they offered up a resounding "pfft," as 72 percent of the students said that they had "never" downloaded in a legal way.
The big difference between us and them came when I asked them about their illegal downloading habits.
A full 52 percent of these students said that they "often" downloaded illegally, and most of these answers were in the "illegal downloading is the only way I get music" vein.
This week I'd like to take a look at the results of a survey I took of many Lawrence students. The answers were given on the promise of anonymity, so the results hopefully are as close to the truth as possible.
I asked several questions in the survey, but they mostly got to the issue of whether or not Lawrence students downloaded music illegally.
When asked how often they purchased physical CDs, 67 percent of the students said that they did so "sometimes," as opposed to the extremes of "never" or "often."
When asked how often they downloaded music from legal sources, such as iTunes, 61 percent said they did so "sometimes," again.
Finally, when asked about the amount of illegal downloading, whether it be from Limewire or torrents or something else, 42 percent of the students said that they get their music for free "sometimes."
Another 32 percent said they "never" downloaded illegally, while a quarter of the students said they "often" downloaded in this way.
According to the survey taken, only a third of the Lawrence students claim to have a music collection that is over 50 percent illegally obtained files. The rest said that most of their library was "legal."
I then surveyed students from other schools in Wisconsin, most of them coming from UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse and other such state schools; 64 percent of them said that they purchased actual CDs "sometimes."
When asked about how often they used legal downloading sources such as iTunes, they offered up a resounding "pfft," as 72 percent of the students said that they had "never" downloaded in a legal way.
The big difference between us and them came when I asked them about their illegal downloading habits.
A full 52 percent of these students said that they "often" downloaded illegally, and most of these answers were in the "illegal downloading is the only way I get music" vein.
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