Music Downloaders buy more music shock horror

Some time ago we realised that DRM was actually counterproductive to music sales. We also hypothesized that downloaders actually buy more music than other people based on some mobile music work we did last year, which indicated this may be the case, but we had no real proof. Now a very interesting report from Canada backs this up with far more data:

A newly study commissioned by Industry Canada, which includes some of the most extensive surveying to date of the Canadian population on music purchasing habits, finds what many have long suspected (though CRIA has denied) - there is a positive correlation between peer-to-peer downloading and CD purchasing. The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study For Industry Canada was conducted collaboratively by two professors from the University of London, Industry Canada, and Decima Research, who surveyed over 2,000 Canadians on their music downloading and purchasing habits.

The other interesting thing is that the music industry had bitterly resisted this since it was first mooted a few years ago - you would have thought an opportunity to delight customers by dropping DRM and making more money would have been a no brainer.