Overview

Based on an April 2000 tracking survey, this study of music downloading found that 21% of Internet users or 13 million Americans had ever downloaded a music file to their computer’s hard drive. Downloading music for free (14% of all Internet users) is particularly popular among college students and young men. Napster, the most popular file-sharing program to date claims 10 million active users. Each user has an average of 100 songs on their hard drive, which indicates that upwards of 1 billion MP3 files exist in the Napster system. Song samplers, 16% of Internet users, listen to music online without permanently downloading a file.