Music is no longer the download of choice for Internet file swappers, according to a new study on online file sharing. Video(mainly movies) and software are now the most down-loaded media.
For the first time last year, music swapping on the Internet was outpaced by the copying of movies and other non-audio files, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD).
Across the OECD's 30 industrialized member countries, music accounted for 48.6 percent of files shared online, compared with 62.5 percent in 2002, according to excerpts of the report seen by The Associated Press.
Video accounted for 27 percent, up from 25.2 percent.
The findings will do little to reassure movie studios, which are worried that they will be the next victims of the ever speedier Internet connections and compression technologies on offer to consumers.
Online piracy through sites like Kazaa, Grokster and Morpheus - which let computer users connect directly to one another to exchange files - has already been blamed for a five-year decline in CD sales that has hurt music labels.
A separate global study by the Motion Pictures Association found that about one in four Internet users had already downloaded a movie. Most said they would pirate more if they took less time to download.
Despite a growing number of paid-for services like Apple's music site iTunes, however, experts say the vast majority of file downloading is still unauthorized.
The biggest growth in downloading last year was in "other files"( neither music nor movies ) which almost doubled their share to about a quarter of all downloads. The category includes software and pornography.
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