Consumer Focus UK has revealed new research that shows how four in ten people are unable to name a single online music service at all - despite there being over 20 on the market. Furthermore the nine in ten (85%) who are aware of online music services, have only heard of iTunes and Amazon.

The study shows how the music industry is failing to promote its many legal alternatives to copyright infringement, preferring instead to take the enforcement rout first. This is at least part of the reason why so many still abuse file sharing (P2P) services to download commercial music tracks without paying for the content.


To be fair part of this role rests with the owners of related online music sites, which carry the greatest responsibility to promote their own services. We rarely see TV advertisements etc. for them and perhaps this is an area that should be pursued with more aggression.

To further encourage the growth of legal online music services Consumer Focus is also calling for reform of UK’s copyright licensing system to make it easier for online music services to offer copyrighted works to consumers legally. Reform would encourage the growth of more legal alternatives such as streaming, “all you can eat”, micropayment, advertisement or subscription based models.

UPDATE - 8:41am

Forgot to mention that we listed a large number of legal alternatives and a sample of their prices during December 2009 - HERE.