The young people

Now this is interesting. It confirms what we at the 'mill have long suspected.

According to secret research by UK Music, most consumers of online music find streaming "useful but no substitute for download services".

Chief exec Feargal "my ma said they cost a packet" Sharkey reckons the "young people" will buy tunes for keeps if they are cheap enough. But they are not, so they nick 'em:

"The young people revealed in the survey that they enjoyed using streaming services but still participated in illegal downloading because they liked to own material. Many illegal downloaders said they would use a legal service if it was cheap enough...

The emerging popularity of streaming services such as Spotify has given the industry some hope, but the participants in UK Music's survey made it clear that they felt streaming services were useful but no substitute for download services."

Which is where we come in. Hopefully. We've made a few big changes to the site over the last month. More about that soon.