A study released in early June of Internet users estimates that 13 million Americans are music freeloaders. That compares with the fewer than 2 million people who have paid to download music files, according to the survey by the Pew Internet Project. The organization, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, conducts research on the Internet s effect on society. The recording industry, and musicians like Metallica, are trying to halt the trading of music online, much of it done with the aid of Napster, a company that lets users search for audio files.
Record companies see it as stealing their work.
An estimated 14 percent of all Internet users have downloaded music for free, Pew said. Nearly half of the freeloaders are between 18 and 29, but 42 percent are between 30 and 49, according to the survey. Only 2 percent of Internet users have downloaded music for free that they own in another form, on a compact disc or cassette. Some observers have felt that downloads would give listeners a taste of music they would later buy, but Pew s numbers indicate that few people are doing this. Pew s survey of 2,503 adult Americans, including 1,345 Internet users, was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on the telephone in April.