Legal ways to find music ‘will encourage users to buy it’

Illegal downloading is now a topic of great interest and those involved in the web hosting world selling music on their sites will most likely have their concerns.

Now it has been claimed that music fans are more likely to purchase downloads if new, legitimate ways of finding and trying them become available.

James Bott, co-founder of CompareDownload.com, a legal music search engine and price comparison website, asserted that music is about discovery, finding new and interesting artists.

Mr Bott said that the government’s recent announcement that those who persistently download illegal content will be cut off from the internet was designed to "send a message that filesharing is breaking the law whichever way you look at it".

He added that this legislation needs be combined with new ways of selling music, so people are encouraged "to discover and download music legally".

His comments come after a Demos poll revealed that people who use filesharing websites to illegally download music spend over £30 more on music per year than those who do not download unlawfully.

Written by Sarah Woolf.