SJ Mercury/Reuters: Poll shows 73% of college students use Napster monthly

"Seventy-three percent of college students surveyed by research firm Webnoize Inc. said they used Napster Inc.'s controversial song-swap software at least once a month, Webnoize said Monday. While the survey of 4,294 students at 10 New England colleges painted a grim picture for record companies, who have sued Napster for allegedly encouraging piracy on the Internet, the poll had positive data for record labels as well."

"Webnoize Inc., which will release the full report next month, said 58.5 percent of those polled who used Napster said they would be willing to pay $15 a month to use the service. ``The more often they used it the more willing they were to pay to use it, which suggests there are probably ways for the music companies to make money in this way,'' said Webnoize analyst Ric Dube, referring to Napster's file sharing system."

"Dube further noted the survey asked people how much they spend on music monthly, with 31.9 percent of all those polled saying they spent less than $10 a month. ``If the music industry could embrace the Napster concept and get people to spend $15 a month on a subscription basis, they'd convert some people who spend less than $10 a month and could grow the music market,'' he said."

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