US Households Hit Delete

More than a million households deleted all the digital music files they had saved on their PCs in August — a sign that the record industry's anti-piracy tactics are hitting home, said research company NPD Group.

NPD credited the ongoing anti-piracy campaign by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and said publicity about the move led more consumers to delete musical files.

In August 1.4 million households deleted all music files, whereas prior to August, deletions were at much lower levels, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD.

When it first began to track deletions in May 2003, NPD found 606,000 households deleted music files from their PCs.

A related NPD survey of consumer perception, however, found that consumers' overall opinion of the recording industry is suffering due to the RIAA's move to sue hundreds of people alleged to have illegally shared music online.

The RIAA represents big record labels such as Time Warner's Warner Music, Bertelsmann's BMG Entertainment and and Vivendi's Universal Music.

NPD also found that the number of households acquiring digital music via peer-to-peer file-sharing services declined by 11% from August to September, during the traditional summer holiday for college students.

usatoday.com.