Source+1

Borland, John. "Music Sharing Doesn't Kill CD Sales, Study Says - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. 29 Mar. 2004. Web. 02 May 2011. < __http://news.cnet.com/2100-__  1027_3-5181562.html>.

**Source 1:**

1) A study of file sharing effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales.

2) For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded.

3) Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.

4) Big record labels have seen their sales [|slide precipitously in the past several years], and have blamed the falling revenue in large part on rampant free music downloads online

5) Others have pointed to additional factors, such as lower household spending during the recession, and increased competition from other entertainment forms such as DVDs and video games, each of which have grown over the same time period.

6) Executives at file-sharing companies welcomed the survey, saying it should help persuade reluctant record company executives to use peer-to-peer networks as distribution channels for music

7) Even in the most pessimistic version of their model, they found that it would take about 5,000 downloads to displace sales of just one physical CD, the authors wrote.

8) Despite the huge scale of downloading worldwide, that would be only a tiny contribution to the overall slide in album sales over the past several years, they said.

9) Moreover, their data seemed to show that downloads could even have a slight positive effect on the sales of the top albums, the researchers said.

10) The Recording Industry Association of America was quick to dismiss the results as inconsistent with earlier findings.

11) Previous studies have been released showing that file sharing had both [|positive] and negative effects on music sales.

12) The [|study], performed by Harvard Business School associate professor Felix Oberholzer and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill associate professor Koleman Strumpf, used logs from two OpenNap servers in late 2002 to observe about 1.75 million downloads over their 17 week sample period.

13) Researchers found that the average user logged in only twice during that period, downloading about 17 songs.

14) The two professors narrowed their sample base by choosing a random sample of 500 albums from the sales charts of various music genres, and then compared the sales of these albums to the number of associated downloads.

15) The study is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Previous studies have been released showing that file sharing had both [|positive] and negative effects on music sales. 