Artists, Musicians and the Internet Survey

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project:
"Their overall judgment is that unauthorized online file-sharing does not pose a major threat to creative industries: Two-thirds of artists say peer-to-peer file sharing poses a minor threat or no threat at all to them."

and

"Across the board, among those who are both successful and struggling, the artists and musicians we surveyed are more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their art than they are to say it has made it harder to protect their work from piracy or unlawful use."

and

"...most (60%) [of the artists surveyed] believe that the RIAA campaign [of suing individuals who share] will not benefit them."

and

"Of those artists who download music files (n=118), most think that downloading has not really changed the total amount they spend on music purchases like CDs, concerts, or other music products (58% say this). Another 29% say they think downloading has actually increased what they spend on music purchases overall, and 13% say it has decreased their purchases. Likewise, among artists who either download music or video files (n=139), 86% say that when they download files for free, they usually end up supporting the artist or author in other ways, such as buying a CD or book or going to a performance. Just over half of all artists who download music or video files say they can’t always tell if it’s legal or illegal to download media files from the internet. More than two-thirds of the sample said they don’t currently pay to download any type of media files, but they would if the price, quality and choice they want become available."

I reckon the RIAA better start suing their own artists, too. Pretty soon, they'll have sued themselves out of both the people who make the music they're "protecting" and the people who buy it.
Smart.

Here's the whole survey: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Artists.Musicians_Report.pdf