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Survey: Expensive CDs, Bad Music to Blame for Music Industry Woes

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 2, 2006 - 7:26am.
Washington - While 80% of U.S. music listeners think free music downloading is stealing, 92% say they never do it, and only a third believe illegal downloading and copying of music is the cause of a decline in music sales over the last five years, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey conducted on behalf of the Associated Press and Rolling Stone. Seventy-four percent of those asked said that CDs are too expensive, and 58% said music in general is "getting worse." The view that the music industry is more to blame for its own woes than consumers was also reflected in the survey, when 63% attributed the decline in music sales over the past five years to competition from other media, a decline in new music quality, or because CDs are too expensive, compared with 33% who said the decline is due to people making illegal copies of music. The survey also found that 15% said they had paid to download a song from a paid service like iTunes, or downloaded a free promotional song, while 85% reported never having downloaded a song at all. The poll of 1,000 U.S. residents conducted Jan. 23-25 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
tags: Music | Survey | Blame | Woes | Expensive CDs | Bad Music |

Survey: Venture Capital Investing Increases Slightly in U.S. in 2005

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 24, 2006 - 9:55am.
Arlington, Va. - Venture capital investing increased slightly last year, with companies raising a total of $21.7 billion in 2,939 deals, according to the newly released MoneyTree Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association. The $21.6 billion invested in 2004 had marked the first increase in venture capital investing after three straight years of declines. Investments in the fourth quarter were down slightly from the prior quarter. Locally, however, investments surged to $225 million in the quarter, up $16 million from the prior quarter, though well below totals from a year ago. For the year, DC-area companies raised $885.2 million, down 9% from 2004.
tags: U.S | Venture Capital | Survey | Slightly |

Most Brits Uninterested in Wi-Fi Services, Survey Says

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 19, 2006 - 3:15am.
London - According to a new survey by electronics giant Toshiba, Brits have yet to warm to the idea of using Wi-Fi on their laptops. Only one in 10 respondents said they used Wi-Fi in hotels, while just 7% use Wi-Fi on trains. Less than 3% said they use the wireless service in coffee shops. About 23% of respondents said they were unwilling to pay for the service, while 19% said they were reluctant to use Wi-Fi because of security concerns. Nearly one in five admitted they do not know how to use the wireless functions of their laptops. Fifteen percent said there were too few hotspots throughout the U.K. to make the service worthwhile. "Many users appear to be failing to capitalise on the opportunities presented to them through mobility," said Toshiba's Steve Crawley.
tags: Wi-Fi | Survey | Brits |

Survey: 91% Favor Parents Over Government Rules for TV Indecency

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 29, 2005 - 9:55am.
Washington - Some 81% of Americans who watch TV are concerned about what programs their kids are watching, but just 9% of parents want increased government control over programming, with 91% instead favoring more parental involvement, according to a survey conducted by Russell Research for TV Watch, a group that opposes government control of TV programming. "People see something on TV they don't like, and some activists yell from the rooftops calling for more government intervention, but that's not what people want," TV Watch executive director Jim Dyke told The Hollywood Reporter. "The vast majority of the people don't want the government making their programming decisions." The survey also found that 85% of parents found TV ratings useful, and 56% found the V-chip -- the device in all new TVs that provides parental controls over programming -- to be useful, although usage data for the technology shows that few parents actually use it. "Some people use the V-chip, some people watch TV with their kids, some people turn it off," added Dyke. The survey was released to coincide with a Senate forum Tuesday on the state of TV programming, organized by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
tags: Law | Survey | Parents | TV Indecency |

AOL Survey: IM Usage Up 19%; 38% Send More IM Than E-Mail

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 10, 2005 - 8:09am.
Dulles, Va. - Instant messaging is up 19% this year compared with last, with many Americans now sending more IMs than emails, according to a new survey by America Online. All told, 38% of those surveyed said that they send as many or more IMs than e-mails, and the younger users are, the more likely they are to favor IM. The company said that a quarter of users want to see entertainment content within IM and 20% want to make voice calls to landlines and cell phones directly from their IM service. The top markets for instant messaging include Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta.
tags: AOL | Survey | E-Mail | IM Usage |

Survey Finds User-Edited Wikipedia Entries Inaccurate

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2005 - 3:51am.
London - The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper recently surveyed a selection of entries in the Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia written and edited entirely by its users, finding substantial errors in some entries that prompted the project's founder Jimmy Wales to call them "a horrific embarrassment." The paper assembled a panel of experts to review the Wikipedia entries on their respective fields of expertise. While entries on musician Steve Reich and diarist Samuel Pepys did not harbor serious inaccuracies, the experts found them to be either incomplete or poorly written. Vogue magazine editor Alexandra Shulman, asked to survey the Wikipedia entry for "haute couture," commented, "Broadly speaking, it's inaccurate and unclear…As a very, very broad-sweep description there are a few correct facts included, but every value judgment it makes is wrong."
tags: Survey | User-Edited | Wikipedia Entries | Inaccurate |

Survey: India Ranked as Top Mobile Game Market

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 13, 2005 - 4:12am.
Cambridge, Mass. - A recent survey by Cambridge-based Pyramid Research of the Brazil, Russia, India and China shows that India ranked as the top mobile game market. Of the 355 respondents in India that identified themselves as mobile data users, 32% said that they play mobile games monthly. The survey predicts that with the rollout of new handsets and networks in India, the mobile gaming market could expand 700% by 2010.
tags: India | Survey | Mobile Game Market |

Survey: Most Consumers Say Web Poses Threat to Children

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 29, 2005 - 4:00am.
San Francisco - The vast majority of consumers believe that the Internet poses a threat to children, especially from online predators and pornography, according to a new poll conducted by Harris Interactive for San Francisco-based Zone Labs. The survey shows that 94% of consumers believe that the Internet presents a threat to children -- with 61% citing predators in chat rooms as the biggest threat and another 16% citing pornographic websites. The survey also revealed that only 23% of respondents had installed software to secure their personal computer against such Internet threats, and 78% said that they don't feel safer computing online compared with a year ago.
tags: Internet | Consumers | Children | Survey | Threat |

Survey: More Internet Phone Customers Disconnecting Landlines

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 19, 2005 - 9:37am.
San Francisco -- Internet-based telephone services are slowly replacing traditional landline phone services, according to a new study by Telephia. Of households already subscribing to Internet telephony services, 53% of those considered "high-tech" -- subscribing to at least three emerging services such as satellite radio, video-on-demand and broadband -- have now disconnected their landline phones. Those surveyed identified savings on phone calls as the main factor in making the switch. "Cost savings and seamless integration of different communication services provide a compelling one-two punch for Internet telephony," said Kanishka Agarwal, the vice president of new products at Telephia. Of the households surveyed who have not yet disconnected their landlines, most cited their availability during a power outage as the main reason. More than a third also cited the importance of keeping their current phone numbers.
tags: Survey | Internet Phone Customers | Disconnecting | Landlines |

Survey: Young Adults Have $2,200 of Entertainment Stored on Devices

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 6, 2005 - 6:20am.
San Jose, Calif. -- Young adults between the ages of 18-24 have an average of about $2,200 worth of entertainment stored on devices such as computers, MP3 players, DVRs and mobile phones, according to a new survey conducted by KRC Research and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The figure is nearly double that of all U.S. adults, who average $1,135 in entertainment content. Hitachi said that the results point to the notion that as the cost of digital storage becomes less than 10% of the content value, it is affordable enough for that content to be permanently retained -- increasing the pervasiveness of hard disk drives. The telephone survey of 1,004 adults was conducted during August.
tags: Devices | Entertainment | Survey | Young Adults |

SIIA Survey Finds State Progress Slow on Adoption of E-Textbooks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 29, 2005 - 5:26am.
Washington -- The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), on Friday released the results of a survey that shows that digital textbooks and online educational materials are often getting bogged down in states' textbook approval processes. The survey found that only a handful of states have updated their review criteria to account for electronic materials. It also found that states are generally unwilling or unable to review materials more than once every six years, making it difficult for digital materials to get into schools. "We found that states are making progress in their support for an e-curriculum, but a lot of work remains in order to ensure that students have access to electronic resources that meet their learning needs -- and their expectations," said Mark Schneiderman, SIIA's director of education policy. "States are not yet keeping pace with changes technology can bring to the classroom."
tags: Adoption | Survey | SIIA | E-Textbooks |

Survey: Most Teens Have c Over Mobile Phone Usage

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 29, 2005 - 5:21am.
Gaithersburg, Md. -- Most North American parents aren't supervising the mobile phone use of their teenaged children, according to a new survey commissioned by Ace*Comm. The online survey of 1,000 teens found that more than one-third (38%) of teens use their mobile phones to text-message their friends during school, while 30% play video games on their phones while in school and 26% use their phones to talk to people their parents would not approve of. The survey also revealed that on average, teens spend almost as much time on their mobile phones as they spend doing physical activity. In addition, half of those surveyed said that they would rather have their TV privileges restricted than their mobile phone use.
tags: Teens | Survey | Mobile Phone Usage |

Survey: Half of Students Say It's Okay to Share Digital Copyrighted Works

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 22, 2005 - 7:57am.
Washington -- More than half of college and university students think it is acceptable in the workplace to swap or download digital copyrighted software, music and movies without paying for them, according to a new survey by the DC-based Business Software Alliance (BSA). The survey, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, reveals that 52% of the student respondents and 25% of academics believe that, even in the workplace, it is okay to download and swap files, no matter the value. BSA members include the country's largest software makers, including Adobe, Apple, Macromedia, McAfee, Microsoft, and Symantec. "College-age students -- most of whom grew up with technology -- are our future workforce," said Diane Smiroldo, BSA's vice president for public affairs. "Before they begin their careers, they need to understand that they may put their employer at risk by engaging in software theft." The BSA often files lawsuits against companies that have violated software licenses.
tags: Survey | Students | Share Digital Copyrighted Works |

Survey: U.S. Video Gamers Number 76.2 Million, Up 11.4%

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 9, 2005 - 10:49am.
New York -- The number of U.S. video game players has increased 11.4% to 76.2 million, up from 67.5 million a year ago, according to a random survey of 1,500 households conducted by Ziff Davis Media. "We're seeing a broadening of the gamer base as gaming goes more mainstream, and simultaneously a heightening of intensity among core gamers," said John Davison, vice president and editorial director of Ziff Davis Media Game Group. The study also found that 24% of gamers reduced their TV watching over the last year, watching on average 16 hours per week compared with 18 hours per week in 2004. Console games are increasing their gains over PC games, after topping PC games in popularity for the first time in 2004. Currently, 62.6 million households play console games and 56.6 million play PC games, versus 54.5 million and 52.3 million, respectively, in 2004. In the mobile gaming sector, the survey found that 86% of gamers own a cell phone, up from 70% a year ago, and that 48% play games on their phones.
tags: Survey | Number | U.S. Video Gamers |

Survey: Over 700,000 Americans Rely on eBay Sales for Income

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 22, 2005 - 8:31am.
New York -- Entrepreneurs in record numbers are setting up shop on eBay, according to a new survey conducted for the online auction giant by ACNielsen International Research. The survey, conducted earlier this month, found that more than 724,000 Americans report eBay as their primary or secondary source of income, with another 1.5 million saying that they supplement their income by selling on eBay. In the first six months of this year, eBay members in the U.S. sold merchandise worth approximately $10.6 billion.
tags: Survey | Americans | Rely | eBay Sales | Income |

Survey: 58% of Consumers Currently Favor Blu-ray Over HD DVD

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 15, 2005 - 9:50am.
Washington -- A recent survey found that consumers currently favor Sony's Blu-ray next-generation DVD format over rival Toshiba's HD DVD. While neither device format has been released, both are expected to hit store shelves during the holiday shopping season. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates (PSB) favored Blu-ray, while 26% were undecided and only 16% favored HD DVD. As background, the respondents were provided information such as which technology companies, film studios, video game consoles, storage capacity and estimated launch dates will support each format. "Consumers perceive Blu-Ray as the favorite on technology company support, gaming, storage and disc lifestyle," said PSB's Mark Penn. The survey did not provide respondents with information on other key factors, such as pricing for the devices.
tags: Consumers | Blu-ray | HD DVD | Survey | Favor |

Survey: European Youth Increasingly Ditching TV, Radio for Web

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2005 - 8:38am.
London -- European youth are spending less time watching TV and listening to the radio in favor of surfing the Internet, according to a survey of 15-24 year-olds across Europe conducted by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA). Of those surveyed, 46% said they watch less TV as a result of using the Internet; 34% said they talk on the phone less; 33% said they read fewer newspapers; and 22% said they don't listen to the radio as much. In terms of overall media consumption, European youth still spend the most time watching TV (31%), compared with radio (27%), the Internet (24%) and newspapers (10%). Almost half of the young people surveyed said they were prepared to pay for music online (47%), while 25% said they would pay for online gaming. "The 15-24 age group is the holy grail for most advertisers and the EIAA research conclusively demonstrates the extent to which the internet now represents an essential media for this audience, increasingly replacing other media including TV and radio, said EIAA chairman Michael Kleindl.
tags: Internet | Radio | TV | Youth | Power | Web | Survey | Teenager | satistics |

Survey: Majority of Parents Limits Kids' Access to Mature Video Games

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 5, 2005 - 10:07am.
New York -- A survey of parents with children ages 3-17 found that 78% overall said they are aware of the video game industry's ratings system, and 53% "never" let their kids play video games rated "M" for mature language, violence or sexual content. Commissioned by the industry's own Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, the survey of 500 parents also found that 70% check the ratings before buying games for their kids, even though 37% said they "sometimes allow" their kids to play M-rated games; 54% of parents said they additionally check the content descriptors on game packaging for details on why each game is given its particular rating, in making their decisions on whether to buy a game. "We believe that the increase in awareness and resulting use of the content descriptors is directly related to the more prominent display of content descriptors on game packaging since 2003, and to the power and broad exposure of a new consumer education campaign launched by the ESRB illustrating both parts of the rating system in PSA advertisements, retail signage and print circulars," said ESRB president Patricia Vance.
tags: Survey | Video Games | Limits Kids |

Survey: Preference for Online News Growing at Expense of TV, Papers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 27, 2005 - 6:33am.
New York -- The number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown over 35% in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers, according to a new report from JupiterResearch. Currently, over 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, compared with 19% in 2001, JupiterResearch said. "In the face of relatively flat usage, this increasing preference for the Internet is intriguing," said David Card, the vice president and senior analyst for JupiterResearch. "While traditional media companies like The New York Times and CNN are doing very well online, our analysis shows that brands like AOL and Yahoo are increasingly important for online audiences," Card said. JupiterResearch's analysis is based on surveys of over 10,750 online adults over the course of four years.
tags: Survey | Papers | Online News | Expense of TV |

Survey: Americans Want New Technologies Like HDTV, but for Right Price

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2005 - 7:24am.
Rochester, N.Y. -- About 27% of adults say that they are likely to buy a high-definition television set within the next year, the highest percentage among seven electronic devices tested in a new survey by Harris Interactive. And although next-generation DVD players have not yet been marketed in the U.S., 24% of American adults surveyed indicate interest in buying one within the next year. "While considerable proportions of American adults are attracted to these technologies, the survey also shows that their interest may be tempered by the reality of the affordability of those products," said Harris' Greg Durkin.
tags: HDTV | Survey | Price | Americans | New Technologies |
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