Teens are trading piracy for streaming music, thanks to sites like YouTube and Spotify, according to a survey of 1,000 14-18 year olds.

Highlights of the research:

• Less than a third of teenagers are now illegally downloading music.
• In January this year, 26% of 14 to 18 year olds admitted filesharing at least once a month compared with 42% in December 2007.
• Many teenagers (65%) are streaming music regularly, with more 14 to 18 year olds (31%) listening to streamed music on their computer every day compared with music fans overall (18%).
• More music fans are regularly buying single track downloads (19%) than filesharing single tracks (17%).

Paul Brindley, CEO of Music Ally, which carried out the survey with media and technology research company, The Leading Question, said: "These figures challenge the idea that filesharing will just continue to grow. While we don't think for a second that it shows the war against piracy is won, it does at least suggest that there is encouraging news for the music industry."

Image: jasonstaten

More Information

• Music Ally

James Lewin
Twitter @podcasting_news