SAN DIEGO – MP3 has metamorphosed from an underground movement among Internet-savvy technophiles to a pop culture phenomenon.
MP3 supporters might say this is already common knowledge, but a study released Wednesday at the MP3 Summit in San Diego has confirmed that MP3 has, in fact, moved into the mainstream.
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Webnoize Inside, the research arm of Web-music news pub Webnoize, touted the results of a study on downloadable music. The study concludes that MP3 is the most widely recognized digital music format, and is becoming a mainstream phenomenon, though the Web is not the biggest conduit for the music.
In December 1998, the study said, 7.9 percent of the people interviewed had heard the term "MP3." In April 1999, 59.4 percent of respondents said they recognized the term, which reflects a 750 percent increase.
Knowing about MP3 files quickly leads to collecting them, the study found. In the same December-to-April span, the percentage of respondents who have never downloaded an MP3 file decreased from 95.2 percent to 67.6 percent, yet the percentage of respondents who have never downloaded more than 250 MP3 files increased from 0.5 percent to 13.9 percent.
The study also looked at how people grab their files. Of the respondents, 41 percent said they download their songs from FTP servers, 33 percent reported receiving them in email messages, and 21 percent found them in online chat sessions. Just 5 percent got them from sites on the World Wide Web.
MP3 buyers want their music to be portable and copyable to other formats (CDs and tapes), and they also want liner notes, the study found.
Seventy-nine percent of the study's respondents buy music if cover art or liner notes are included, 37 percent if they can copy the music to a CD or cassette, and 21 percent if they have a way of using the music on their computer.
The study researched both consumer interest and experience with downloadable music. Webnoize said it released earlier results from the study that showed an 800 percent increase in the downloading of legitimate MP3s by college students between December 1998 and April 1999.
The study surveyed 1,861 college students from December 1998 to April 1999. Participants were 65 percent male and 35 percent female.
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