NME web users 'back file-sharing'

The UK music industry has begun giving warnings to downloaders

Most music fans are refusing to change their downloading habits despite a campaign to stop illegal song-swapping, a music website survey suggests.

More than 1,000 readers of NME.com took part in the website's poll, with nearly 75% saying they would continue to use free download services on the internet.

That is despite the UK music industry threatening to pursue persistent illegal song-swappers in court.

Record companies believe illegitimate downloading damages CD sales.

Almost 90% of surveyed readers said downloading did not stop them buying music, with 85% believing downloading did not damage artists.

British Phonographic Industry (BPI) spokesman Matt Philips told the NME the BPI wanted to tackle "a few hardcore uploaders... we want to make it clear they can be sued".

He said the main object of the campaign was to raise awareness about the rules of downloading.

They've put more distance between labels and fans than ever before Conor McNicholas NME editor on the BPI

"You might find that we'll submit a lawsuit tomorrow. And we'd have been in our legal rights to submit a lawsuit a year ago," he told NME.

"But we don't want to do that. We want to continue on the awareness trail," he said.

But NME editor Conor McNicholas said the threats were creating a gulf between the industry and music fans.

"You'd think the BPI would be trying to build links between record labels and music fans," he said.

"But no, in threatening legal action against those who are currently swapping music over the internet, they've put more distance between labels and fans than ever before."

If the record industry had provided a decent legal alternative to unauthorised sites from the start, "then we wouldn't be in this mess", he added.

A recent report from Harvard and North Carolina Universities suggested that swapping songs online had no negative effect on music sales.

Disagreement

The research, conducted over 17 weeks in 2002, said high levels of file-swapping had an effect on CD sales that was "indistinguishable from zero".

But official music industry bodies branded the study "skewed".

And the number of songs sold via Europe's biggest music download sites has increased tenfold over the past year.

More than a million downloads have been sold via sites such as Freeserve, MSN and Mycokemusic from January-March - 10 times up on the same period in 2003.