Just read an article courtesy of a new Twitter follower that intrigues as its not the first piece of research that defies the popular belief of many in the music industry.

What are we on about?

Well, according to BI Norwegian School of Management, who carried out a survey in Norway of course, those that used sites like BitTorrent are far and away the biggest consumers of ‘paid for’ music as well.

This is something that we’ve subscribed to for a while. All our social circle do digital music and frequently use shared music to find new bands, new songs but if (and you have to excuse the non-intended pun here!) a chord is struck then the ‘fan’ and the ‘band’ relationship is formed. Its a lot easier to do this online rather than in a retail outlet. Fans then check out the band further online, can check out artwork, repertoire, blogs, tour dates - maybe go see them live, even buy a CD because you get some promotional bonus content or something - it tends to go like that for many music lovers!

Almost 2000 people were involved in the research and those that consumed “free” music were then, check this, TEN TIMES more likely to buy downloads or CD’s. OK we ain’t got the detail on the research but Google this stuff you’ll find more research and more results that sort of say the same thing… So whats the difference between BitTorrent and Spotify, Last FM etc - as far as the fan is concerned not that much really (interface, peripheral functionality aside).

There all just places to check out new music before you buy.

GYEO