P2P sharing increases CD buying, Canadian govt. study finds

An independent, government commissioned study in Canada has found out what many of us who keep up with technology know intuitively - people who share and download music using P2P services are more likely to buy CDs than the general public:

When assessing the P2P downloading population, there was "a strong positive relationship between P2P file sharing and CD purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file sharing increases CD purchases." The study estimates that one additional P2P download per month increases music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year.

Jack Kapica provides a more in depth analysis of the government report, including this statement, which is obvious to anyone in the P2P scene, but it's nice to have an independent study confirm:

The study concluded that about half of all P2P tracks were downloaded because individuals wanted to hear songs before buying them or because they wanted to avoid purchasing the whole bundle of songs on the associated CDs. Another quarter were downloaded because they were just not available in music stores.

I'll be the first to admit that some of the music I look for, most recently some Tegan and Sara albums, are very rare and not found either in iTunes or in record stores. There's no other recourse but downloading their music via P2P services. Via boingboing.