The Pew Internet and American Life Project surveyed 2,700 musicians to get their take on file-sharing, music downloads, and the future of their livelihoods. The response was not nearly so uniform as the record industry might assume.
The Pew people say: "These musicians are very divided about the problems and marketing potential of online file-sharing systems and they are not sure the recording industry campaign against illegal downloading will help them. Many of these artists themselves share some of their songs for free online and find that it helps them sell more CDs, draw bigger concert audiences, and get more playing time on commercial radio."
The Pew survey in PDF form is here.
Among those surveyed, roughly one-third said they agree with the statement that file-sharing services are not bad for artists; one-third said they agree with the statement that file-sharing services are bad for artists; and a confused one-third agreed with both statements.
But a solid majority -- two-thirds -- believe artists should complete control over material they copyright and they believe that copyright laws do a good job protecting artists. (Pew does not say where the artists reside for this survey but many of the groups who helped bring the survey to the attention of musicians are U.S.-based groups so we can assume, I think, that we're talking about U.S. copyright laws here.)
And an even great majority -- 83 per cent -- say they have made some of their songs available for free download online and have seen improved sales of CDs and improved attendance at concerts as a result.
Lots of grist there for the policy mill.