Brussels, 21st May 2012

IMPALA welcomes new quantitative research which demonstrates the commercial value placed by consumers, when buying devices, on the ability of such devices to play music copied from CDs. The study also looked at what data consumers find most valuable to back up when using cloud services.

The research was carried out by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, employing a statistical technique called “conjoint analysis” (used in market research to determine how people value different features that make up an individual product or service). Commissioned by UK Music, the research was peer reviewed by a leading academic in the UK.

The results showed that UK consumers place the following value on copying music (from CDs):

For MP3 players:

44% (£21) of a basic MP3 player (costing £47.45)
53% (£65.17) of a mid-range MP3 player (costing £122.95)
32% (£80) of a top-end MP3 player (costing £247.14)

For smartphones:

2.59% (£6.67) of a basic smartphone (costing £257.46)
4.13% (£23.60) of a top smartphone (costing £571.33)

For tablets:

6.7% (£33.50) of a tablet (costing £499.79)

Another finding of this new research is that, while music ranks as the third most important type of data to back-up on cloud services, it is more valuable compared to work documents, films, eBooks or video games. 72% of respondents consider it their most valuable commercial data of any type.

For more details on the report see here.

To see the actual presentation on the “UK Music Consumer”, by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, see here:

UK Music – OO Copyright Research Presentation

About IMPALA

IMPALA was established in April 2000 to represent independent music companies. 99% of Europe’s music companies are SMEs. Known as the “independents”, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists – they produce more than 80% of all new releases. SME’s also produce 80% of Europe’s jobs. Their potential is enormous but is hampered by complex barriers to trade and severe market access problems. The impact on diversity, consumer choice and pluralism is clear. Over 95% of what most people hear and see, whether on radio, retail or the internet, is concentrated in the hands of four multinationals, known as the majors.

Cultural and creative SMEs are now officially recognised by the EU as “the drivers of growth, job creation and innovation”. IMPALA expects the EC and its member countries to put in place key investment, digital and market access measures. Fostering Europe’s economy of culture and diversity is one of the EU’s top priorities in becoming the world’s leading knowledge economy. Culture is a bigger earner than any of chemicals, automobiles or ICT manufacturing and provides more than 3% of Europe’s jobs. IMPALA has its own award schemes to help promote cultural diversity and new talent and highlight the artistic contribution of independent music. IMPALA award winning artists include Efterklang, Adele, Manu Chao, Radiohead, Agnes Obel, Caro Emerald and Sigur Ros.