Source+8

 Bender, Mark. "The Impact Of Digital Piracy On Music Sales: A Cross Country Analysis." //International Socail Science Review//. 84. 157-70. Print. .

1) Napster, a P2P program, allowed online users to connect with one another and swap copyrighted music, videos, and other files contained on their computers were uncompensated when consumers downloaded these music files, the act of downloading "free music"" became known as digital music piracy. Market statistics compiled by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) show that worldwide sales of music fell at the turn of the century and P2P networks were immediately blamed for the industry's bad fortunes.

2) Economists Oberholzer and Strumpf conclude that file sharing had a limited impact on record sales. They conclude that 5,000 downloads are needed to displace a single CD sale.

3) Digital music piracy is an example of end-user piracy, in which consumers can obtain music for their own personal enjoyment without physical transactions.

4) Consumers can learn about new artists while sampling digital media and subsequently purchase the recordings of these artists.

5) Consumers may become discouraged by bad music that they sample. Sampling theory implies that if an individual intended to buy the CD, downloading is simple used as a means of testing the CD before making the purchase.

6) Sampling is also attributed to the idea that consumers might experience a sense of guilt listening to music that they have not purchased. These users then want to support an artist who they like or want to buy the entire CD since they already enjoy listening to one or two songs on it.

7) Oberholzer and Strumpf conclude that file sharing had only a limited impact on record sales.